My birthday is coming up in a few days and my wife asked me what I wanted to serve when my family comes over to celebrate. That’s easy… “Sushi.” Well, my family is pretty picky when it comes to food, which I can understand in my father’s case, but my mother, who ran a catering service for untold years, you would think, would have a more diverse interest in foods. I guess not. So, of the 12 or so folks who will be coming over, about 6 of them actually would eat sushi. So, we’re also getting some shrimp and they can have those and pretend.
I always knew that sushi wasn’t for everyone. Some folks are turned off by the rawness factor, some just because they don’t think they like the critter (ewww…. eel! I’ve been told). But one day I’d like to do a poll to see what it actually is that turns those people off. You eat tuna from a tin but you won’t eat it with rice? And it seems like some folks drown the piece in shoyu so they don’t have to taste anything. Weird. I understand the though of eating raw meat might be off-putting to some people, and I don’t think that’s weird, but I guess what I don’t understand is when someone simply refuses to at least give it a try. When I was younger, someone told me to try something three times and after the third time, I’ll either like the food or hate it. It worked with olives (which I love but used to dislike) and ever since then it has been my strategy (although these days I can’t think of any food that I don’t like, really).
I’m not disparaging people who don’t like sushi, I understand that not everyone likes everything, but just making the point that is this many people like it, it’s got to mean something. If you haven’t at least tried it, test out something simple, like maguro-maki (tuna roll) or even a cooked item like a shrimp tempura roll to get in the groove, so to speak. Remember.. Mikey didn’t really die from eating pop rocks and drinking coke, and as long you don’t go to a dive of a sushi-ya in a nasty part of town, neither will you.
Warren
The Sushi Guy
I have always been fascinated by the creation and culture of different foods, particularly sushi and sashimi in the modern era of Japanese cuisine. I am a classically trained chef and sushi connoisseur, also having operated a food service company and enjoy investigating and experimenting with food around the world.
I took my wife to Sushi last Friday and she wasnt nearly excited about it as I was. Ok, so she wasnt excited at all. She had been 1-2 times before and it really didnt “grab her palette”. This time was different. She loved it. I was so happy that she really enjoyed it, now we have yet another cuisine we can enjoy and look forward to together.
That’s great. It was kind of the same with my wife. I’m still introducing her to new stuff, but she’s getting to like it a lot more.
It’s good when it’s an easy choice to go out for sushi.
I’m a Japanese guy who has a non-Japanese wife. She can eat sushi, but no raw fish. I think raw fish is the best part of sushi, but she hasn’t really aquired the taste. Now, how are you trying to convincing your wife to eat sushi?
Well for me it wasn’t really about convincing her per se, but about getting her into the environment and seeing how folks enjoy the raw items. She’s somewhat adventurous outside of food, so I just presented opportunities and she took them. I started with the easy stuff, maguro, etc. Salmon wasn’t hard because she likes cured salmon (like gravlax or nova) so it was a matter of pointing out that it’s pretty much the same. If your wife has ever had tuna in a good restaurant that was just seared on the outside and raw on ths inside… well, that’s just maguro, right? Some people just don’t want to try it out and you really can’t pressure them, but I’d just try to point out that very often they might be eating ‘almost’ sushi, so why not try it totally raw 🙂
I love sushi. But I think it is definetly and experience where you have to progress. The 1st time I had sushi, I spit it out and thought it was so gross to eat raw fish. Then I have it another try and sushi became my favorite food on the planet. And I notice myself slowly progressing. At this point I love the taste of raw fish so much that I don’t even eat rolls, I just order raw fish and rice on a side. It soo good. I had a similar experience with miso soup and olives. Hates them both 1st time I tried them.
It’s funny you say that about olives as well, that was my exact experience with them. It took me 3 tries before they stopped tasting like leather and I now love them.