TikTok is full of videos with techniques and tips to master the art of eating sushi with chopsticks. And it is that this traditional Japanese food has consolidated its popularity in the Western world. However, a video by Comer La Vanguardia with 2.2 million views caused debate on TikTok (@comerlavanguardia) when the sushiman at the Tunateca restaurant in Barcelona assured that, contrary to what we believed, sushi should be eaten with your hand .
This is why we turned to Albert Raurich and Roger Ortuño, two experts in Japanese gastronomy, to solve this question once and for all, while adding another one: if the answer is with the hand, why every time we we go to a restaurant they give us chopsticks?
For Albert Raurich, owner and chef of the Asian restaurant Dos Palillos (one Michelin star), sushi should be eaten with your hands, just like in Japan. "I know this from my wife, who is from there," says the chef, adding that the Japanese before "considered sushi as informal food, from a beach bar," now it has become "gourmetized."
In his restaurant, he explains to his diners that they should eat with their hands, because the fingers exert the exact pressure so that the sushi does not fall apart, contrary to what can happen when using chopsticks. "Sushi are like little jewels. The merit of this little rice ball is that it is pressed enough so that it can be picked up by hand, but enough so that the rice is loose and crumbles later in the mouth," he explains. the chef to assess the delicate balance of this meal and the technique of its preparation.
Roger Ortuño, founder of the Comer Japonés blog and author of the book OISHII, Illustrated Dictionary of Japanese Gastronomy, is more flexible when it comes to answering this question. He affirms that "it is not wrong to eat it with your hands, nor is it wrong to eat it with chopsticks. That is, you can do it both ways."
However, he mentions that the temaki, for example, which is a kind of roll wrapped in seaweed, is delivered to the diner at the sushi bar by the chef. Ortuño says that the tekkamaki type, also wrapped in nori, was invented to be able to eat sushi and play cards at the same time without dirtying them. The name of this sushi "comes from tekkaba, which means game room", clarifies the expert.
What is clear to Ortuño is that cutlery is not needed, since all the ingredients are previously prepared and cut by the chef. Therefore, the debate is over what to eat them with.
In any case, both specialists agree that not everything is eaten by hand. "You have to understand the context. Sushi is so vast and enormous, that there are things that are eaten with chopsticks and others that are not," the chef clarifies, explaining that nigiri, which is the most modern format born in the 19th century , and maki (wrapped in seaweed) are the ones that are usually eaten by hand.
Ortuño agrees with the chef and comments that depending on the type of preparation it will be more practical to take it one way or another. "There are up to 30 types of sushi and by this I mean the format they have, not their ingredients" and he explains that sushi is made up of shari, which is rice seasoned with vinegar, salt and sugar; and what is known as net, which would be the ingredient that accompanies the rice (tuna, salmon, etc.).
Both give chirashizushi as an example, a format of sushi spread out in a bowl that, due to its composition, must be eaten with chopsticks.
Clarified the first question, the other question that remained to be resolved is why in Japanese restaurants they give us chopsticks. Simply, as we have explained, because there are foods within Japanese gastronomy that do need chopsticks. Both experts say that if you are served sashimi (raw fish cuts) or soup, you should eat them with chopsticks. But be careful, the soups are slurped straight from the bowl and chopsticks are used to pick up the rest of the ingredients, not to mention spoons.
Perhaps a more accurate question would be why in Spain and the western world we do not get used to eating with our hands? Ortuño argues that it is due to ignorance, while for Raurich word of mouth did not work very well when sushi traveled kilometers from Japan to the rest of the world.
You already know, sushi formats such as maki and nigiri should be eaten by hand. And in case you have to use chopsticks, chef Raurich tells us the 3 things you must never do or you will make a Japanese mad.
