Don't do it!

[talentedmrraber]

Do not put ginger on top of your sushi. The sharp taste of the ginger is used for cleansing the palate between pieces of sushi, so that the subtle taste of each fish can be fully appreciated. Putting the ginger on top of your sushi subverts its proper purpose.

Also, don't chew with your mouth open.

Comments

[agnoster]

Ah, but see, you're supposing a specific purpose. Looking backwards through binoculars is fine for a good time, but not if you're trying to find birds. Likewise, I'd posit that putting ginger or too much wasabi or soy sauce on your sushi is fine if you're just out for a good time, but not if you're trying to professionally critique a sushi place (for instance).

The fact of the matter is, I don't think that exists as a "convention" in most of america. I'd never heard of it before you mentioned it, and I've certainly seen my friends (all, admittedly, results of broken homes, poor breeding and poverty, of course) put ginger on their sushi. Maybe they're just bold rebels, but I suspect it's more that the "convention" you speak of is not conventional in the U.S.

So there's three ways to do it: the "right" way (based on science or expert opinion, let's say), the "conventional" way (that's how people do it, or how society expects us to do it), and the "personal" way (or how we like it). Sometimes they match up, sometimes they don't. In this case (based only on my admittedly small sample size), the "right" way doesn't seem to match the "conventional" way. Same with milk in tea - the "right" way says you should put the milk in first, the "convention" is to put it in afterwards, and I prefer the "right" way, personally. With milk in Earl Grey, the "right" way says it interacts unfavorably with the bergamot oil, the "convention" is to put black tea in milk, and maybe I like it. My point is that, unless it's a life-threatening "don't cross the streams" kind of rule, it doesn't really matter how people enjoy things, so long as they enjoy them. (Ugh, quote mark overload.)

[talentedmrraber]

This ginger thing is certainly a convention associated with sushi, although I suppose its origin is Japanese. Do a Google search for "how to eat sushi" and check out the first n results. All of them agree that ginger is to be eaten between pieces to cleanse the palate.

That aside, there is a bigger point here. Even if your goal in sushi-eating is pure and simple enjoyment (as of course it should be, unless you're a restaurant critic or somesuch) there's something to be said for becoming a connoisseur. By learning more about the subtleties of the fish (which can't be done over the taste of ginger) you broaden your ability to enjoy sushi in the future.

Once you've had good beer, by analogy, the idea of chugging, say, a high-quality bottle-fermented Belgian beer through one of those beer hats seems not just unconventional, but wasteful and foolish. You'd miss most of what makes that beer great, and while you could certainly enjoy yourself in that way, consuming the beer more gradually and thoughtfully would increase your overall enjoyment of it in the long term.

In short, people don't always know what's good for them, even when it comes to their enjoyment of food and drink.

[agnoster]

Here's the thing, though: becoming a connoisseur of X requires some non-zero investment. Now, multiply it by the different types of food, drink, music, etc. that you consume. There's some point of diminishing returns, where we have to accept we can't be connoisseurs of *everything*. I take my appreciation of beer, coffee, tea, whiskey and wine relatively seriously (though not nearly as seriously as some), but not so much with sushi, pizza, or burgers. Perhaps this is a personal failing on my part - but I enjoy them all the same.

In counterpoint to your "convention by googling", I'd suggest searching for "how to make tea": most will agree that you should use loose-leaf tea, a tea-pot (pre-heated), and freshly drawn water. If you actually looked at tea consumption conventions in America, I think you'd find a majority (probably more like 80%) of tea is made with standing hot water, teabags, and paper cups (which are not pre-heated, of course). This is because articles on "how to do X" will generally be from experts who know what they're talking about, and convention is formed by the lowest common denominator. I'm not saying that using ginger between rolls isn't "right" - merely that, in the US, I doubt it constitutes "convention", and that rather than being a full-blown "ignoramus", one need only not actively seek out better sushi-eating methods in order to be totally unaware of this practice.

[ladymedb]

I think really all one has to do is look around one at a sushi restaurant to know the thing about the ginger.

Although, I would not look around myself at a sushi restaurant if I wanted lessons in how to hold chopsticks correctly.

[agnoster]

I dunno. Maybe I'm just terribly unobservant, but I've eaten a good amount of sushi and never made this observation, nor have I ever heard someone mention this practice before now. I'm pretty sure that if you took a random sampling of people, very few would know ginger is to be eaten between rolls to cleanse the palate. In fact, I'm willing to take 10:1 odds the majority of a random sample wouldn't know, and 2:1 odds if you sampled people actually eating sushi. (This doesn't make it any less right - just not "convention" in the U. S.)

[ladymedb]

Wow. I don't know. Maybe I only hang around sushi snobs, and maybe people don't know for a fact what the ginger is for, but I've rarely if ever seen people try to put it on top of the rolls.

Now, if you told me that only a few people in the US knew that kappa maki is essentially to cleanse the palate between pieces, I'd be a little more credulous.

[ladymedb]

* and I've seen some BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD sushi manners in my time.

[agnoster]

Man, I don't even know what kappa maki *is*. The most common use I've seen for the ginger is probably decoration - i.e. people who don't touch it, ever. (For whatever reason - I think ginger's delicious. I'd probably take the ginger with no sushi over sushi with no ginger, depending on how hungry I was.) And I'd imagine that your social circles are much closer to sushi snobs than 90% of the American population (no real data, just a guess).

At some point, I saw someone do the following: dip ginger in soy sauce, place on roll, devour. I tried it, and damn if it wasn't good. So I've stuck with the method ever since. It may be uncouth, but it sure is tasty!

[ladymedb]

I take your point that if you like it you like it, but for my part, if I'm paying $8 for two slices of sashimi, I'm damn well going to taste it!

[hydrobromic]

Oh my! That image makes me giggle :-)

I am reminded of Max's anecdote about eating some good chocolate with you (Jesse). It came with instructions about the "correct" way to eat chocolate. You have to rub it with your fingers to release the aromas, sniff it, lay it on your tongue and let it melt, etc. While these steps might serve some specific, subtle puproses, Max and I agreed that paying that much attention to your food is the backbone of the experience (rather than dogmatic observance of some steps).

I don't think that stopping to chew before choking down your food is really forcing you into the dismal zone of diminishing marginal returns for your effort. Neither is trying your food with or without different condiments. You're hardly being forced to become a connoisseur (or connoswooze) by eating with different condiments.

[talentedmrraber]

Right. I do sympathize with Yitz's sentiment that effete, latte-drinking coastal elites shouldn't tell average Americans how to eat their own goddamn sushi, but I still think that people who take a certain thing seriously deserve to be listened to, and, unless anyone has a good reason not to, taken up on their suggestions. It's true that just paying close attention yields great rewards, but I think that connoswars and connoswoozes settle on certain conventions for a reason---namely, because they really do heighten the enjoyment of something in the long run.

I respect the response that people can't always be bothered---I can't be bothered to get that serious about my bike or my computer, for instance---but that doesn't mean that I don't know that some people know better. There's no effort involved in abstaining from putting ginger on sushi, so I'd encourage everyone to at least give that method a shot before resuming their ginger-on-top ways.