The right way to eat sushi, according to renowned Japanese chef Nobu Matsuhisa

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December 11, 2017 4:51 PM

Japanese chef Nobu Matsuhisa explains how to eat sushi the traditional Japanese way.

Nobu Matsuhisa, owner of Nobu Restaurants and Hotels and author of "Nobu: A Memoir," shares how to eat sushi the traditional Japanese way.

Following is a transcript of the video; it has been edited for clarity.

Nobu Matsuhisa: I’m Nobu Matsuhisa, owner of Nobu Restaurants Group and Hotels.

Chef Matsuhisa opened his first restaurant in 1987 in Los Angeles; today he owns 47. And there are six Nobu hotels around the world.

Matsuhisa: You don’t need extra wasabi. Wasabi is always inside, between the rice and fish.

So you can use chopsticks or your fingers — it doesn’t matter. Use what's more comfortable.

OK, here is wasabi and the ginger. Normally, people take the wasabi and dip soy sauce here, right?

But for me, it means a more traditional way. A piece of the fish, dip — put the soy sauce and wasabi on the middle of the fish. Then not much soy sauce.

So these are the three ways: sashimi, nigiri, and roll.

Nigiri sushi. Make half-turn, take the chopstick and put soy sauce on the fish side. You can see no rice. Just a touch of the soy sauce on the top of the fish.

But now, ginger. A piece of ginger, after one bite, if you try the next one, some tuna or shrimp or whitefish, take one piece of the ginger. Clean the salmon taste, then try the next pieces.

So, the sushi roll. Take this one, and this is no choice. Put the soy sauce in the rice but just a little. Just a little, then one bite. So everything is one bite. Don’t bite two bites.

I think it’s better to eat more the light, then a little bit heavy. It means more fatty fish at the end.

The final sushi may be better as a roll, even more — a cucumber, not like a fish. So cucumber roll, oshinko roll, and sour prawns. This is my way. I like that.

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