8 Common Japanese Food Myths, Debunked

Andoh says: The word nigiru means to compress or compact, and it describes the way in which the rice nugget is formed. It is finger food, to be eaten with hands, not chopsticks. And you flip your wrist so that the topping (usually slice of raw fish) briefly gets touched in soy sauce before transporting to your mouth and eating. 

Shimbo says: When we go to sushi restaurants, usually people eat at the counter bar. You make an order, and the chef delivers sushi to you. And you have to enjoy the best moment of this—rice is lukewarm, the fish is very cold—and to do that you have to quickly pick it up with your fingers, a little bit dip in shoyu, and enjoy. Sushi rice is crafted so gently that if you try to pick it up with chopsticks it breaks up and you will make a mess. It’s meant to be picked up by hand. 

Andoh says: It’s unremarked upon, meaning that making noise is not only okay, it’s the norm. It’s not just ramen but any noodles. Personally for myself, I still can’t slurp without getting hiccups. I eat my noodles without a whole lot of air going in. I would say that slurping is the norm but not encouraged.

Shimbo says: Slurping is fine, making noise is okay. Men do it more than women. When I eat ramen, I don’t know if I slurp. I may do a little slurp but I don’t do huge slurping like a man does. Is there any right etiquette? Tampopo tells the story that first you have to observe it, the landscape of the ramen bowl. But our culture, how we enjoy our meals—not ramen but everything—we first appreciate how it is presented, and first appearance is very important to start our meal. The presentation has to be clean, professional, and we appreciate it, and then you attack the ramen. Don’t take too much time, don’t talk to your friends, just finish the ramen while it is hot and flavorful. If you leave the noodle too long in your ramen broth it gets soggy and not delicious. Just speed up your eating time. I think that is the only etiquette.

Andoh says: Light soy sauce (usukuchi shoyu, in Japanese) is light colored, but actually saltier (higher sodium level) than "regular" soy sauce.

Shimbo says: The reason why we use light color shoyu is to make the color of the prepared dishes lighter in color. That’s it. Usukuchi [shoyu] is very popular in Kyoto, and Kyoto is the center of Japanese food, where the finest quality of meals were developed. Even the color of the dishes shouldn’t be masked by the color of shoyu.

Andoh says: What people now, especially in America, refer to as sushi is almost entirely nigiri sushi and maki sushi rolls. Those are only two of many very different forms or formats that sushi can take. Some other [American] places are serving chirashi or bara (verbs that mean to scatter, impression of random scattering, but bara is more random in connotation) or doing inarizushi, fried tofu stuffed with sushi rice.

Shimbo says: Sushi has a wide variety. Nigiri and maki became very popular in America. We have 47 prefectures in Japan, and I think every prefecture has its own kind of sushi. Sushi has maki (thin and thick), nigiri, chirashizushi (sushi rice tossed with seafood or vegetables) or decorated sushi, which is sushi rice is topped with seafood or vegetables, and oshizushi (pressed sushi). There is inarizushi, a sushi in which sushi rice is packed in sweet, simmered abura-age (deep-fried thin tofu).

Andoh says: It’s really a technique that involves glazing with a sauce. The word teri means "shine" and yaki means "to sear with heat." I often use the phrase "skillet-glazing" to describe food prepared in a teriyaki manner.

Shimbo says: In Japan we have a traditional preparation, which is called yuanyaki, which is a mixture of mirin, shoyu, sometimes sake, and sliced citrus fruits (yuzu, kabocu, or today, lemon or lime) to suppress the strong fishy flavor. That sauce is called yuan. The basting and cooking process is called teriyaki. Yuanyaki is name of the marinade, and teriyaki is the name of the technique of preparation. When you cook the fish basted with yuanyaki sauce, you are adding the glossy appearance, layering the flavor, layering the color over the fish, so it becomes glossy. That technique is called teriyaki.

Andoh says: The biggest myth is that sushi means raw fish. It doesn’t [mean that]. It’s the rice. Anything that has the vinegared rice can be legitimately called sushi, and there are many, I would even put it in the hundreds, that do not involve fish, cooked or raw. Many of them are vegan or vegetarian. 

Shimbo says: Nigiri sushi was invented in Tokyo, which was called Edo during the 19th century, and back then there was no refrigeration, and the fish was caught, filleted, and cured. Some items were cured with salt and vinegar to extend the freshness of the seafood. The sushi started not as raw fish sushi. Everything was cured and cooked. After the war, the refrigerator came from America and that has completely changed the way we eat sushi in Japan.

Andoh says: Umami can be defined in several ways—the scientific definition is glutamic acid (in Japanese the word is umami seibun); it is quantifiable and some foods contain more glutamates than others. The culinary definition of umami is "flavor potential." Talented cooks are able to coax out that potential so that people who consume the food experience it as extremely flavorful. Just including ingredients with high levels of glutamates does not mean a dish will taste good. Temperature (exposure to heat—how long, how high, etc.) plays an important role in activating the flavor potential locked in certain foods.

Shimbo says: It’s not a flavor, but a flavor sensation. Umami could be some part of enjoying a particular flavor, but it involves so many senses. One is a tactile sensation in the mouth. I am okay with putting umami after salty, sweet, sour and bitter, but it’s a flavor “sensation,” a texture or how something feels in your mouth.

Andoh says: The typical pattern of what comprises a meal is vastly different from culture to culture. The Japanese meal culture is one broth, three dishes. A broth is always part of a meal pattern. In American meals it’s expendable—you don’t think of soup as part of every meal every day. In Japan that broth is part of the meal. What gets served is depending on the degree of casual to formal. In Japan you would find the bowl of soup on the tray to begin with, and most people would take a sip of soup, bite of rice, and start eating other things. It’s not an appetizer that gets cleared away; that’s a pattern that comes from Europe.

Shimbo says: Never, ever. Miso soup is a very basic component of any meal in Japan. It can be served at an informal everyday meal or a formal meal. In everyday meals, everything is served at the same time, a bowl of miso soup, a bowl of rice, grilled veggies, a tofu dish. You sip miso soup while you are enjoying your food. It’s part of your entire meal. When you go to a high end place to enjoy a formal meal, the miso soup and rice are served at the end of the meal. Which is telling the diners that when you get the soup and rice, no more is coming. And a place like a sushi restaurant, after enjoying sashimi or sushi, people always order a bowl of miso soup to make your stomach warmer. You are eating cold or raw fish, and finishing with a bowl of soup is very enjoyable. Miso soup plays a very different role than Western soup.