All this takes is a common ingredient paired with every sushi dish.

Whether you eat sushi because of its nutritional value or because you simply like the taste, there’s no debating the worldwide popularity of this Japanese dish. However, when it comes to sushi, sometimes it’s not a matter as to why you eat it but how. Despite the discussions surrounding whether to eat sushi with your chopsticks, with your hands, or even upside down, one of our Japanese-language reporters, Yuichiro Wasai, has a shockingly simple but effective way to eat sushi without breaking its shape and embarrassing yourself in the process.

Yuuichiro’s method employs only one special ingredient: ginger.

Considered a palate cleanser, ginger is typically eaten in-between bites of sushi so you can fully savor the mellow as well as complex flavors of the next piece. While some die-hard ginger fans prefer eating ginger straight-up with their sushi, Yuuichiro has a different idea as what to do with the pickled vegetable, and all it takes is three simple steps:

Step 1. Dip the ginger slice in soy sauce.

Step 2. Holding the ginger slice in your chopsticks, slide it across the top of your piece of sushi like a brush, transferring the soy sauce to seafood.

Step 3. Put the ginger down on your plate (you can eat it later) and enjoy your sushi!

Yuuichiro found that through this method, not only do you avoid the faux pas of soaking your sushi rice in soy sauce, but you also preserve the sushi’s form. There’s nothing more frustrating than dipping your piece of sushi in soy sauce only for it to crumble apart right in your hands, destroying your sushi-eating integrity in front of friends and colleagues.

Like with any food item, there may be a traditional way to eat something. However, there is no necessarily and definitively “correct” way. Whether you prefer to eat your sushi with soy sauce, without, or with a different topping is up to individual preference, and this ginger-brushed method is Yuichiro’s, and if you’re yet to try it, could become yours.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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