This Is The Right Way To Dip Your Sushi In Soy Sauce
If you were most worried about using chopsticks wrong while eating sushi, then you might want to take a deep breath. There is, in fact, a wrong way to eat sushi, and it has everything to do with how you handle your soy sauce. There is quite a bit of etiquette involved with eating sushi. Fortunately, once you are aware of the proper sushi-eating practices, they are very easy to adopt.
Just as you shouldn't salt your food before tasting it for fear of over-seasoning, you should be careful dunking your sushi in soy sauce. Both practices over-salt your food and are impolite if you don't taste the food first (via The Daily Meal). Not to mention, it can ruin the overall flavor profile of your food. Soy sauce will easily overpower the delicate flavors of your sushi roll if it is dredged in it. But, this mainly happens when you dip the rice in because it is more absorbent. So, always dip the fish or nori side into the soy sauce first (via Delish).
"Normally, chefs try to give you the perfect balance to enhance the flavors of the fish and the texture of the rice, so trust them," said chef Seki Shi, the owner and head chef at New York City's Sushi Seki (via Insider).
Mistakes to avoid while eating sushi
Chef Seki has some other helpful tips on proper etiquette to avoid making mannerly mistakes while eating sushi. He notes that you should not dip any sushi that comes with its own sauce into soy sauce. Again, it all comes back to the flavors being planned and orchestrated to complement one another perfectly.
A couple of other helpful tips when it comes to soy sauce and sushi are brilliant suggestions from the chef. His trick to getting the perfect amount of soy sauce on your sushi if you're really afraid you might overdo it, is to dip the pickled ginger into the soy sauce and use it to brush the sushi. Similarly, if you can't handle much wasabi, mix a small amount into your soy sauce for a milder heat.
No matter what kind of sushi you might face while you are out next, these tips and tricks will help you look like a sophisticated pro.