When first trying sushi, it’s pretty common for most people to figure out how things work by trial and error. For some, it takes a handful – or a dozen – times to use chopsticks to finally lift up a single piece of sushi without dropping it.

Another learning curve of eating sushi is knowing what to do with the colorful condiments that are frequently served alongside your order. Pickled ginger and wasabi are both there to enhance your meal, but maybe not in the ways you may assume. Here’s a quick tutorial on how to properly use your ginger and wasabi.

Why You Shouldn’t Mix Wasabi into Your Soy Sauce

While placing chunks of wasabi into your soy sauce or adding ginger on top of your sushi rolls won’t get you banished from a fine dining Japanese restaurant, properly incorporating the items will help enhance your overall experience while giving respect to the chef.

Mixing the wasabi into your soy sauce changes the flavors for both the soy sauce and wasabi. For soy sauce that has been freshly prepared and didn’t come from the bottle sitting on your table, adding wasabi kills the taste. Most sushi chefs who serve soy sauce have created it specifically to complement the sushi they are serving you.

The same thing goes for the wasabi. When a chef chooses to serve you fresh wasabi that’s been ground from the stem instead of one that comes from a powder or tube, you want to enjoy it the way the chef intended.

Ginger Is Not Meant to Lay on Top of Your Sushi  

Ginger is meant to be eaten between sushi servings to cleanse and refresh the palate. If a sushi chef wants to incorporate ginger into a sushi dish for balance, he or she will do it at the time they are making it.

How Should You Add Wasabi and Ginger to Your Sushi?

If you want to add wasabi to your rolls, dab a small piece of wasabi on one side of your sushi, then flip it over and dab the other side into your soy sauce. This way, you get the proper balance of all of the flavors at the same time.

For ginger, place a piece in your mouth between eating different kinds of sushi.

Experience Freshly-Prepared Sushi Rolls

Join us at the Shōgun Sakura Sushi located on International Drive for a one-of-a-kind sushi experience. Our sushi bar offers freshly-prepared sushi rolls, authentic nigiri, and sashimi, handcrafted by our sushi chefs and served in an intimate setting. To book your reservation, call us today at 407-352-1607.