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Most sushi places don't prepare nigiri properly in my experience. Each piece of nigiri should have wasabi between the rice and seafood and a small amount of sau

Most sushi places don't prepare nigiri properly in my experience. Each piece of nigiri should have wasabi between the rice and seafood and a small amount of sauce on top, intended to be eaten fish-side-down. (SF probably has the most places that do it correctly outside NYC and LA) You're welcome to eat it however you like, but the ginger is generally speaking the palate cleanser while wasabi is historically both flavor enhancer and an antibacterial agent.

tptacek 8y ago
All the major metros in the US have high-end sushi restaurants that are making nigiri properly/authentically. In those restaurants, if there's wasabi underneath the neta, it's because the cook wants it there; if there isn't, it's because they don't.
cortesoft 8y ago
I always like the sushi, ginger, and soy sauce/wasabi mixture all in the same bite. Maybe I am weird, but I love that combination of flavors all at once.
- zapzupnz 8y ago
  I can see the appeal, but I think that would overpowered and confuse the mixture of flavours.
- psyclobe 8y ago
  Heh yeah I eat a ton of that ginger all throughout the meal
- tptacek 8y ago
  You're definitely not expected to eat the ginger along with the nigiri (sometimes menus will point this out) but, I mean, if you like the way it tastes, go for it. :) The only thing I think we have to agree on is that people who mix wasabi in with their soy sauce are evil.
- quickthrower2 8y ago
  I eat sushi without ginger, wasabi or soy sauce. Yuk, yuk and yuk.
- notyourday 8y ago
  That sort of makes all the fish taste the same or very similar.
nkozyra 8y ago
> properly What does this mean, really? This always strikes me as snobbery signaling. Perhaps it's traditional, but does that make it "proper?" Why do only some cuisines have such constraints on what is "proper" or "authentic?"
- dymk 8y ago
  Why do words mean anything? Why do we categorize anything into any number of buckets of arbitrary granularity? If I’m served a steak or a slab of raw salmon, am I gatekeeping or being snobby when I claim that I was not served sushi?
  - nkozyra 8y ago
    This isn't what we're talking about at all though.
    - peterwwillis 8y ago
      derefr has a great explanation of traditional vs proper vs authentic. But on Why do only some cuisines have such constraints?, that's probably just down to culture. Prescribing how a dish is made expresses a deep cultural identity through food, even if that food has evolved greatly over time. You might be able to change a dish and even improve its flavor, but it would no longer be that culture's food. Now, why do only some cuisines seem to be sticklers more than others? Probably because some people are more sensitive than others about their food. They probably went to get a certain kind of meal, and it wasn't what they were expecting, and they were pissed off. And I get that. If you have an intention to eat this culture's food, you don't want some weird western "interpretation" of it, or some jackass from NY who thinks putting cream cheese on it makes it "regional". You want to be connected to where that dish first came from, and all the breadth of history that distilled into creating its specific flavors and textures. You want that dish. It doesn't help that when dishes are transported out of their country of origin they get transmuted into some kind of local monstrosity. Tex-mex? Spaghetti and meatballs? "Chinese takeout"? California rolls? It's clearly not the real mccoy, but people still call it "mexican", "italian", "chinese", or "sushi", when it barely resembles those cuisines at all. And don't get me started on trying to find a real burger or bbq anywhere outside this country, to say nothing of those rarer American foods, like drip coffee. And to be honest, there's probably a certain amount of cultural elitism involved in "cuisine" (the French word for "we're better than you"). I've always found the French and Japanese alike in that they both think they're superior to everyone else on earth. That's probably going to result in a lot of uppity people wanting their dish the "superior" way. But for me, it's about wanting to understand and respect the deep cultural traditions that produce singularly unique and beautiful expressions of food.
imetatroll 8y ago
Actually the ginger is not a palate cleanser: it is used to dip into the soy sauce so that that can be spread evenly and delicately on top of the sushi which allows one to avoid clumsily dipping the sushi. People seldom do this, but a Japanese sushi chef would tell you this.
distantaidenn 8y ago
Not sure how it's done in the US, but here, the chef usually asks you if you want wasabi or not (at least at any place a step above conveyor sushi). In addition, at any decent omakase place (chef decides the menu), the chef will instruct you how to best eat each piece: with or without soy sauce, etc.

tptacek 8y ago

All the major metros in the US have high-end sushi restaurants that are making nigiri properly/authentically. In those restaurants, if there's wasabi underneath the neta, it's because the cook wants it there; if there isn't, it's because they don't.

cortesoft 8y ago

I always like the sushi, ginger, and soy sauce/wasabi mixture all in the same bite. Maybe I am weird, but I love that combination of flavors all at once.

zapzupnz 8y ago
I can see the appeal, but I think that would overpowered and confuse the mixture of flavours.
psyclobe 8y ago
Heh yeah I eat a ton of that ginger all throughout the meal
tptacek 8y ago
You're definitely not expected to eat the ginger along with the nigiri (sometimes menus will point this out) but, I mean, if you like the way it tastes, go for it. :) The only thing I think we have to agree on is that people who mix wasabi in with their soy sauce are evil.
quickthrower2 8y ago
I eat sushi without ginger, wasabi or soy sauce. Yuk, yuk and yuk.
notyourday 8y ago
That sort of makes all the fish taste the same or very similar.

nkozyra 8y ago

> properly What does this mean, really? This always strikes me as snobbery signaling. Perhaps it's traditional, but does that make it "proper?" Why do only some cuisines have such constraints on what is "proper" or "authentic?"

dymk 8y ago
Why do words mean anything? Why do we categorize anything into any number of buckets of arbitrary granularity? If I’m served a steak or a slab of raw salmon, am I gatekeeping or being snobby when I claim that I was not served sushi?
- nkozyra 8y ago
  This isn't what we're talking about at all though.
  - peterwwillis 8y ago
    derefr has a great explanation of traditional vs proper vs authentic. But on Why do only some cuisines have such constraints?, that's probably just down to culture. Prescribing how a dish is made expresses a deep cultural identity through food, even if that food has evolved greatly over time. You might be able to change a dish and even improve its flavor, but it would no longer be that culture's food. Now, why do only some cuisines seem to be sticklers more than others? Probably because some people are more sensitive than others about their food. They probably went to get a certain kind of meal, and it wasn't what they were expecting, and they were pissed off. And I get that. If you have an intention to eat this culture's food, you don't want some weird western "interpretation" of it, or some jackass from NY who thinks putting cream cheese on it makes it "regional". You want to be connected to where that dish first came from, and all the breadth of history that distilled into creating its specific flavors and textures. You want that dish. It doesn't help that when dishes are transported out of their country of origin they get transmuted into some kind of local monstrosity. Tex-mex? Spaghetti and meatballs? "Chinese takeout"? California rolls? It's clearly not the real mccoy, but people still call it "mexican", "italian", "chinese", or "sushi", when it barely resembles those cuisines at all. And don't get me started on trying to find a real burger or bbq anywhere outside this country, to say nothing of those rarer American foods, like drip coffee. And to be honest, there's probably a certain amount of cultural elitism involved in "cuisine" (the French word for "we're better than you"). I've always found the French and Japanese alike in that they both think they're superior to everyone else on earth. That's probably going to result in a lot of uppity people wanting their dish the "superior" way. But for me, it's about wanting to understand and respect the deep cultural traditions that produce singularly unique and beautiful expressions of food.

imetatroll 8y ago

Actually the ginger is not a palate cleanser: it is used to dip into the soy sauce so that that can be spread evenly and delicately on top of the sushi which allows one to avoid clumsily dipping the sushi. People seldom do this, but a Japanese sushi chef would tell you this.

distantaidenn 8y ago

Not sure how it's done in the US, but here, the chef usually asks you if you want wasabi or not (at least at any place a step above conveyor sushi). In addition, at any decent omakase place (chef decides the menu), the chef will instruct you how to best eat each piece: with or without soy sauce, etc.