There is a single fact that around 24 billion pairs of chopsticks are used in Japan each year. Everyone in Japan seems to eat with chopsticks for everything, from rice to noodles. They also eat sushi and sashimi with chopsticks, you may guess?
The truth is, most Japanese people actually eat sushi with their hands. You see, sushi used to be eaten as street food. It’s bite-sized and even considered fast-food in the past. Hence, the word “nigiri” means “held by hand or gripped”.
Thus, eating sushi with their hands is the way sushi was always meant to be eaten. It is a familiar sight to see most Japanese people use their hands to eat sushi in high end restaurants. Yet, in low to mid-range restaurants, there is no official eating etiquette, so people are free to choose to either use chopsticks or their fingers to enjoy sushi.
If you happen to travel Japan, you can remember that it is perfectly acceptable to eat sushi with your hands. No need to be shy about it! You are still eating sushi properly though you are not using chopsticks.
There are a couple of guidelines as well in eating sushi. First, dip the fish into the soy sauce. We should avoid dipping rice into the soy sauce because rice will absorb too much soy sauce. Secondly, make sure that the fish touch the tongue first. And lastly, eat sushi in one bite (never try to bite it in half), and enjoy the tastiness of both rice and fish together in your mouth.
If it is not possible to travel to Japan, you can obviously enjoy sushi and sashimi in our Sakae Sushi outlets in Singapore. We believe that sushi is a work of art where the freshly sliced fish combined with the softness and temperature of the rice is carefully calculated. You can also ask the chef to make a smaller portion for you if you are feeling self-conscious about opening your mouth too wide.
Tend to try eating sushi deliciously with your hands but hesitant to go out? We have Sakae Delivery delivering fresh sushi & sashimi to your doorstep!