Eating Sushi: Fingers Or Chopsticks?

[dropcap1]Q. [/dropcap1] In sushi bars, there are always some people who try to tell everybody else the "right" way to eat sushi and sashimi. But they seem to disagree with one another as to whether you should eat with your fingers or with chopsticks. Some of these guys also say you should always eat a piece of sushi in one bite, which seems absurd to me. What say you, O Master? [dropcap1]A. [/dropcap1]First of all, you have to stop letting other people tell you what to do. And you can cut out that O Master stuff, while you're at it. The consensus among deft American sushi eaters is that if you should use chopsticks up to the point beyond which you're not good at it. (My own limit is hot soup with long noodles.) Eating sushi with chopsticks isn't too hard. It eliminates having rice stick to your fingers, and the temptation to lick it off. Another advantage is that you will not be able to over-dunk the sushi into soy sauce and wasabi. Not only is that too much soy sauce, but it makes the nigiri sushi (the piece of fish lying on the pillow of rice, not rolled) fall apart. However, the reason they bring you a hot towel at the commencement of the sushi experience is so you can use you fingers. That is never against the rules, no matter what you hear from the loudmouth three seats away. Using chopsticks is just a little more delicate. Like wearing a tuxedo to a "black tie optional" party. As for the one-bite rule, that's for real--if you're in Japan. But there are many eating practices in Japan that we don't follow. Japanese sushi eaters are accustomed to having uncomfortable mouthfuls. And the sushi pieces there are smaller. Or, more correctly, American portions of sushi (and everything else) are larger than they are almost anywhere else. If you think you need to take a bite out of a piece, go ahead. But two bites is about it. You didn't ask me this, but I'll tell you anyway: although the nigiri sushi is presented fish side up, rice side down, the way to eat it is to rotate the fish to to bottom and dip it into the soy sauce, trying to avoid letting the rice get wet. It also goes into your mouth fish side down. That is much easier to do with fingers than with chopsticks.