How to eat sushi like a sushi chef

• Fish first into the soy sauce – sushi etiquette you mustn’t forget
• Eat sushi the connoisseur’s way
• Side menus that improve your sushi dining experience

Sushi is a big part of the everyday Australian food culture now, so it’s time to start perfecting the art of eating sushi. The most important thing to remember when enjoying sushi is to respect the flavours in front of you. There is no need to drown it in soy sauce and wasabi. The trick to making sure the sushi doesn’t fall apart is this: lay it on its side then pick it up with chopsticks, so you’re applying a gentle pressure to the fish and rice at once.

To cleanse your palette during your meal, go for drinks like green tea, water or sake. Sushi and Japanese food in general is a cuisine of subtlety; drinking anything with overpowering flavour can take away from the whole experience.

Sushi connoisseurs of Japan are often heard advising people to eat sushi in a particular order, starting with light, more plain-tasting fish, and gradually working up to fattier types of fish. Sushi Studio’s chef Taka Ueda, however, suggests that the best way to eat sushi is to simply enjoy it the way you want to. When serving sushi according to his own taste, he usually brings out his signature dishes first.

Chef Ueda also likes to showcase the uniqueness of Japanese cuisine through his side menu. As he explains, ‘In Japan, we use as many parts of the fish as we can’. Suitably, you’ll find delicacies such as miso-grilled salmon kama (meat above the gills), and red snapper fish-head soup (‘ara-jiru’) on this menu. These special touches show precisely why when you bring an understanding of sushi etiquette and culture to the table, you’re in for a superb dining experience.