More and more people are becoming aware of what they eat, and for a lot of good reasons. For example, obesity is rampant in many parts of the World, and if you don’t control what you eat, there are many related health risks. This is one of the the reasons why healthy foods like sushi are becoming more and more popular in the United States, even though the U.S. is quite far from the food’s origins in Japan. However, before you eat sushi for the first time, there are a few things that you need to know. It’s very common for people that are trying different sushi dishes for the first time to end up never trying sushi again mainly because they didn’t know what to expect. So to make you more inclined to learn to love sushi, we put together 10 tips for the sushi beginner. We hope to help you have an amazing dining experience the first and each additional time you walk up to a sushi bar.
- Start with cooked sushi. Although people usually relate sushi with raw fish, there are actually a wide variety of sushi dishes. There are shrimp, octopus, clam, and crab meat, which can all be cooked. Aside from that, there is what you call California rolls, where the main ingredients are sticky rice with cucumber or avocado among others.
- Eat what you are familiar with. You might want to try out the scallops or squid first, before eating something new like sashimi and raw tuna. Actually, the taste of these foods when eaten as sushi is the same when cooked, only the texture will be different.
- Avoid eating sushi with intense flavors. Mackerel is a tough choice if you are trying sushi for the first time. It has a pungent odor and taste which can be overwhelming to first time sushi eaters. Some people refuse to eat sushi after trying out something they didn’t like. So for you to good opinion of sushi, you might want to try milder fishes first.
- Don’t put too much wasabi on your sushi. Beginners may think they can handle a lot of wasabi on their sushi, but honestly, they really can’t. Wasabi is the green condiment made from horseradish, and it’s very, very hot. Especially if you have low tolerance for spicy foods, a small amount of wasabi will go a long way.
- Don’t force yourself to use chopsticks. Some people think that eating sushi means using chopsticks as a utensil. If you don’t know how to hold much less eat with them, the sushi might slip, wasting money and causing needless frustration. If you really want to use chopsticks, practice at home or just make sure that there’s a plate to catch the food when it slips.
- If you aren’t used to eating raw fish, be careful. People not used to eating raw fish can get nauseous afterwards. A lot of people might also need to relieve themselves shortly after eating raw fish. That’s fine as long as it doesn’t last until the next day. You might want to drink some medicine (Pepto Bismol) if you can’t handle it.
- Drink beer or tea with your sushi. This is very true, because sushi has lots of oil in it and the best way to down it is by drinking beer or tea. Of course, if you’re a young child, don’t drink beer. Tea is just as good, or better, depending on your preferences. Sake, a Japanese beer, is probably the best drink when eating sushi because of its complementary taste. Sake, hot or cold, will keep the sushi tasting nice and not overly fishy in your mouth.
- Only eat fresh sushi. By fresh, I mean, it should be less than a day old. This is important with fish or any other seafood dish, especially when they are eaten raw. There are many disadvantages to eating old sushi, like having a higher risk of food poisoning and eating a poorer quality of food.
- Eat the gari or pickled ginger in between a sushi piece. Doing so will help you taste the full extent of the sushi flavors. You should do this when eating different types of sushi. Example, if at first, you ate sashimi, the tuna roll won’t taste quite as good without ginger inbetween because of the clashing flavors. To balance it out, eat the pickled ginger, which is usually included whenever you buy sushi dishes.
- Be open-minded to other types of sushi. Even if you didn’t like one sushi dish, it doesn’t mean that all kinds have the same taste. This is the problem facing some people, who, after trying one dish and not liking it, immediately assume that all sushi tastes awful. There are so many different flavors with sushi that you have to try a wide variety of dishes before coming to any conclusion about which sushi is right for you.
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