Eating sushi is a process. You have to pick up the sushi, dip part of it in soy sauce, garnish it with wasabi and then eat it. While it is not rocket science, it does requires attention and basic knowledge. In order to fully appreciate the experience, you should familiarize yourself with the terminology. Learning more about different sushi and ingredients will allow you to order more diverse and delicious sushi. Click on the thumbnails to make them larger.
Uramaki , also called an inside-out roll, is a popular type of sushi in the United States because the rice is on the outside.
Nigiri-zushi , the most typical sushi, is oblong with a topping and rice often wrapped with nori (seaweed).
Temaki is a cone-shaped sushi with nori (seaweed) outside.
Maki-zushi is a roll with the nori (seaweed) outside.
Sashimi is raw seafood sliced thin served without rice.
Nori , which is basically a thin sheet of seaweed, is a common sushi ingredient.
Wasabi , as most Americans know it, is actually not wasabi but horseradish with food coloring
so it resembles Japanese wasabi.
Soy sauce , or shoyu in Japanese, is fermented soybean and often used to flavor sushi.
Gari, or pickled ginger, is supposed to be eaten between sushi servings to cleanse the palate.