Japan’s Traditional Seafood Dish Is Steeped in Etiquette

Some salient points about sushi:

It is proper to eat these rice and seafood morsels with your fingers, grasping them with the thumb and first two fingers. Or you can use chopsticks.

Before eating, wash your hands with the moistened towel that is offered, but don’t use it to wipe your face and neck.

Dip the sushi fish-side down in soy sauce, then place it fish-side down on your tongue and eat it in one bite.

Don’t insult the chef by using too much soy sauce or too much wasabi (Japanese horseradish). You are supposed to savor the delicate natural flavors of the seafood.

Sushi is served in pairs rather than singles to allow fuller appreciation of the taste.

Sushi chefs like their work because they thrive on the lively atmosphere of the sushi bar and enjoy pleasing customers.

It takes 10 years of training before they are qualified to purchase fish.

Left handed sushi chefs face one disadvantage. Knives constructed for left handers are more expensive than ordinary knives.

This was some of the information presented to the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Institute of Wine and Food during Sushi Sunday, a seminar and tasting at the New Otani Hotel and Garden in Little Tokyo.

Eleven of Los Angeles’ leading sushi chefs explained their craft, answered questions and demonstrated how they cut up fish. Then they adjourned to individual sushi bars in an adjacent room to produce sushi for tasting.

Queried about the dangers of eating raw fish, the chefs responded that knowledgeable selection and handling of the ingredients should ensure safety. Problems are more likely to occur with improperly trained “instant” sushi chefs.

The so-called “sushi worm” occurs naturally in some fish during certain seasons, they said. Savvy sushi masters know how to spot and avoid it. And if they purchase fish that turns out to be defective, they either discard it or return it to the supplier.

When asked if women were qualified for their profession, they responded negatively. Women don’t make good sushi chefs because their body temperature is warmer than that of men. Thus they are unsuited to handling raw fish, the chefs claimed.

Not fish but eggs are used to judge the merits of a sushi bar. A traditional way to test an establishment is to sample its version of tamago-yaki, a thick, sweet omelet that is served sushi style. If the test is not satisfactory, the customer is entitled to leave without paying for the sample, the chefs said. The preparation of this omelet by combining layers of the sweetened egg mixture in a rectangular pan was also demonstrated at the program.

Sushi has a long history. One theory holds that it originated not in Japan but in Southeast Asia, where fish was packed in rice and allowed to ferment. The acid produced by the rice during fermentation acted as a preservative. Thus the fish could be stored and shipped without spoiling.

The Japanese copied this idea and, at first, ate only the fish and discarded the rice. Later, they ate both the seafood and rice. In the mid 17th Century they shortened the sushi-making procedure by adding vinegar to the rice rather than waiting for fermentation.

In 1824, the fish-topped cakes of rice that mean sushi to most Americans were introduced to the Japanese by an inhabitant of what is now Tokyo. This form of sushi is called nigiri-zushi or Edomae-zushi, Edo being the old name for Tokyo.

At the tasting that followed the program, AIWF members ate both Tokyo-style seafood-topped rice cakes and Osaka-style sushi. The latter is shaped into a rectangle in a wooden mold, then cut into bars.

Chefs who took part were Hasaharu Motoyama and Itsuo Hayashi of Oomasa; Yasoji Kumono of A Thousand Cranes restaurant at the New Otani; Hiroshi Mashiko of Tasuki; Katsu Michite and Yutaka Saito of Restaurant Katsu; Takayuki Morishita of Yuu restaurant; Noriyoshi Sakurai of Yagura Ichiban; Sakae Shibuya of Shibucho; Shigemi Tsushima of Otani--A Garden Restaurant in Palm Springs, and Masao Yamamoto of Miyabi. Michi Sujishi was mistress of ceremonies and interpreter.

The event was a benefit for the AIWF’s Lois Dwan Scholarship Fund. Manny and Willette Klausner were chairmen.