Slaughtering Japanse Meals

[ozkai]

Originally Posted by MMM

I have a friend from Japan who is a sushi chef here in the US. She has some great stories of how some (a small %) of customers have a unique way of eating.

One couple who come often to the sushi bar use nearly an entire bottle of soy sauce every time the come. They fill their soy sauce bowls to the brim, grab a piece of sushi, place it in the dish, chat for a few moments while the rice soaks up the soy sauce and then eat.

I have some more stories. Does anyone else have any?

The Sushi must taste like a sponge soaked in soya sauce *YUK*

My well remembered experience was in a small traditional Kyoto Izakaya.

I good friend and well known 65 year old gentleman in the area took us. The little place was run by a man and his misses, and he introduced her to us as name 'Piggy'. As I was a foreigner, he complimented us by serving some raw Chicken. I was not game to eat it at all. It was bad enough eating the small whole headless fish on the previous plate. Just before leaving the place, I pushed my high wooden stool back under the counter, I was very intoxicated, and I ripped half the skin off on the upside of my hand.. Bizzare story, but very true and I still have the scars six years later!

[yuujirou]

oh wow.... NO idea why i didn't post on this sooner >.>''
well to start
one chap figured the exterior of the edamame to be edible so for the entirety of 2 minutes, nibbled and chewed on the bloody thing before his wife finally noticed and corrected him >.>''

and i can't believe how many times i've seen the first example, of people just leaving their nigiri in their 'pool' of shoyu for hours on end whilst they'd chatter away about listless and dullish pleasantries =.=

once i even witnessed one gently lad with audacity enough to place his nigiri in the dish and literally drown the poor thing in soy sauce; as if the poor bugger in his grande ol' age hadn't the taste buds left to taste anything otherwise >.>''



honestly i can't figure americans and their sense of logic >.>''
i mean, does anyone here know anyone who will habitually empty half a bottle of ketchup on a single french fry?

>.>'''

[NettoKun]

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Should be drawn and quartered....jk

I realize that there is a certain way to eat foods, and if one chooses to go against unwritten protocol then that's their preference. It's like if you go to Chicago and want a hotdog with ketchup and not mustard you'd be laughed at. I'm not a fan of mustard and prefer my tomato substitute so I'd fall into the small % so to speak.

Anyway, my story is about my friend, while we were on your 8th grade trip to Washington DC in 2004(I think that's when we went), went to a little sushi shop inside the food court of a mall in D.C., not knowing the power of wasabi, he popped a chunk of it into his mouth about the size of a large grape. He then got extremely red, started sweating, coughing, and sounded like he was about to die. The 2nd worst part about this is that I didn't actually see it and only heard 2nd hand. But by far the worst was the "after math" that almost killed his roommates. I on the other hand, by an act of God, moved rooms prior to this incident, down the hall(we had originally been next door with connecting rooms) well away from the ensueing fallout.

Lastly, Japanese mayo and my stomach are not the best of friends.

lol i remember my 1st taste of wasabi, i ran 4 my tea and i dare not touch it again. my mother loves it

[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by Nagoyankee

You're someone I'd avoid going to eat sushi with in Japan.

A refined diner would do neither of those.

I didn`t notice this but...


Since when was putting a dab of wasabi in the soy sauce a bad thing? EVERYONE I know does this. And we end up eating with a LOT of people with connections to the sushi-world. (Husband`s father is a lead supplier of fish for Atom, etc) Even the CEOs do this....

Maybe it isn`t "formal", but it certainly seems like everyone does it.

lol i remember my 1st taste of wasabi, i ran 4 my tea and i dare not touch it again. my mother loves it

I can`t say that I love tons of wasabi, it`s great in tiny amounts so that is all I use on a normal basis...
But I seem to be one of those rare people who doesn`t suffer all that much from that type of "hot"-ness.
I can eat a spoonful without much problem, same with Chinese mustard. In fact, back in high school I used to do it on dare all the time.

[bELyVIS]

Honestly I hate sushi. As a manager I was required to go to company parties and they were always at sushi restaurants. Thank God for soy sauce, wasabi, and beer to choke it all down. And to think I had to pay 5000 to 10000 yen to this "honor".
As for someone talking about chicken sashimi, a friend had some and almost died from food poisoning. I won't try it.

[Columbine]

Originally Posted by MMM

I think most of what passes for "delivery pizza" in Japan is criminal...tuna fish, mayo, corn...no thanks.

Lol, that reaction always amused me. I quite often get a tuna-sweet corn pizza here, and it nearly always comes with a choice of BBQ dip or... garlic mayo. Totally normal.

Japanese Guinness though, is an absolute abomination. I don't know where it's brewed or what the hell they do to it but it's feeble and watery and just... isn't anything like the proper stuff.

I was also given takoyaki with spam instead of tako and tomato pasta sauce instead of the usual one. Yet still with the fish flakes, aoinori and mayo. It was... pretty horrible. Worse? Given it by an Osakan. Even my japanese friends were a bit "what the heck IS this?"

[TalnSG]

Along with a few of the horrors mentioned my most unnerving ones were what I considered faux pas on the part of sushi restaurant staff!

One was the server who proceeded to pour a full saucer of shoyu for me when I was served my sashimi. One - know one should ever need that much; Two - I do not add anything to my sashimi unless it's lack of freshness needs disguising. I have not and will not return, but I discovered that this is how the entire staff was trained, not just a bad server.

The second was a very well known chef (I had drive 60 miles to his restaurant because of his rep) who insisted - rather obnoxiously - that I add wasabi and shoyu to my hamachi sashimi. What a waste of both his excellent fish and the only REAL wasabi I have been served in this part of the country. I did not want to taint the wonderful flavor of either, but complied for one bite just to shut him up.

[trunker]

you know those little plastic green imitation grass things they serve with nigiri or sashimi?

well i was dining with an ex girlfriend one night, when after doing the whole wasabi in soy sauce mixing thing, she picks up a piece of sashimi and lays it down on her plate.

then, using her chopsticks she picks up the plastic grass, dips it into her soy sauce, and then brushes it onto the sashimi.

i couldnt help but almost choke on my tuna as i laughed my ass off.

she goes "what?!"

"what you just did" i say.

"what?! thats what its for right? everyone i know does it!"

[mitsuki18]

Originally Posted by Nyororin

But I seem to be one of those rare people who doesn`t suffer all that much from that type of "hot"-ness.
I can eat a spoonful without much problem, same with Chinese mustard. In fact, back in high school I used to do it on dare all the time.

The good thing about wasabi is that it doesn't keep burning in your mouth like those incredibly hot pepper.
Tried it once and it wasn't that bad.

[sushidushi]

Originally Posted by Barone1551

I have witnessed the wasabi mixing in with the soy sauce too.

In many sushi places in England and Canada, they serve the food with a little dish with a blob of wasabi. How would one usually eat the wasabi? It's a bit powerful as it is by most people's tastes.