Last week I happened to go to a Sushi place for lunch. The place had a good décor with candles, mini oriental fans hanging on the walls, swords placed on stands near the tables – gave the place, a true Japanese look. It was lunch time and they were serving Sushi on a buffet with other goodies like soup, tempura, shrimp battered and fried – oh my favorite, and various other items. The Sushi buffet in itself had a stack of various sushis. It was a feast for those who were dining there and most importantly liked ‘Sushi’. Now that I mentioned about the décor and food in that place, I saw many customers eating their way out, trying all the different food that was set out for them.
I started my way through trying the various dishes as it was ‘All you can eat’ anyways. But the fun part of it was using the chopsticks. I am now able to use chopsticks when eating oriental food but about five years ago, I would ask for a fork in such places. I remembered about how I would make an effort to use the chopsticks and struggle with it to get through a few morsels and then give up looking at all the food that everyone would pipe down in a flash. It would all make sense if someone does not want to eat in that place but pretend to be eating something, but not for someone who is hungry. This is not the time to learn to use chopsticks, I must say.
Using chopsticks and eating sushi is an art in itself. One might think, ‘what is there to it? You pick up the sushi with your chopsticks, dip it in your sauce mix’ – which can be just soy sauce or soy sauce mixed with Wasabi, to give your that tangy taste, that would leave your nose and eyes to water. In the process of doing this, you might leave the rice behind in the sauce bowl and then you spend the next couple of minutes picking those up. The trick is not to soak your rice in the sauce. Just dip the top portion with the fish into the sauce and put the sushi into your mouth with the fish side touching your tongue – intriguing isn’t it? Thanks to my friends who educated me on ‘Sushi 101’.
In ancient times, different chopsticks were in play like the wooden chopsticks with carvings, golden or silver ones with artwork to show the richness of the one who is providing it and such. Aristocrats used silver chopsticks, because it turned color when it comes in contact with poison. Only use of it now that I think of is to use it when eating Fugu puffer fish sushi. I want to try that once (hopefully not the last time in my life) and I will make sure to use the silver chopsticks at that time. You can use chopsticks in these Asian places to show that you are a Roman while in Rome but not knowing the proper techniques to eat at these specialty places will show that you are pretentious. If you can’t use chopsticks, feel free to use your hands – nothing can surpass that.
1 comment:
It's always fun to eat Japanese food with chopsticks. It's also fun to try and eat rice from the rice bowl using the chopsticks. We break convention and pick up the bowl so that the rice doesn't fall. This is a break from the usual of leaving the dish on the table.
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