For the Japanese, eating sushi is like eating a peanut butter sandwich: it comes so naturally, the etiquette rules - on how to eat sushi - are part of their DNA.
If I type in “Sushi Paris” the top three results all show rolls as the primary item on the plates.
More than a little selection bias is in play there. You’ve found restaurants with advertising budgets, which in many places is not representative of restaurants overall. I’d wager the bias is even stronger in big tourist cities.
In my European country you’ll order sushi as nigiri at any cornershop sushi place.
It’s most often sold as a set, where there’s typically 4 pieces of some roll with three ingredients and nori on the outside (but variations are not uncommon).
It’s quite close to what I’ve had in Japan. Although fish quality is very different.
In my experience, the jam-packed, inside-out, sauce-drenched rolls are characteristic of chain restaurants and shopping districts in the west.
If you’re near a big city, chances are there are also small, independent restaurants that make more traditional nigiri, maki, and sashimi. What they serve is what I consider “normal” sushi. It’s the only kind I ever seek out.
What Japanese people would consider “normal” Sushi we call Nigiri.
The implication that “we” don’t consider nigiri to be normal sushi doesn’t match my experience at all. Among the people I’ve dined with, normal sushi is nothing like the “jam packed inside out rolls” you described. In other words, I think you’re overgeneralizing.
Normal is not defined as what you seek out, but what’s most common in the area.
That’s one sense of the word, sure. And in the areas where I’ve had sushi, the more traditional style is more common than the stuff you described. (It might be easy to miss, though, especially if you only notice restaurants with significant advertising budgets.)
I mentioned what I seek out not as a definition of “normal”, but to demonstrate a response to what was already considered “normal” before I came along. I have rephrased that comment to try to make this more obvious.
I have never been to a place that sold sushi and didn’t have the option to order just nigiri. Other than the packed sushi at the supermarket.
I’d agree that most people here think of maki when you say sushi, but nigiri is absolutely not considered “not normal” and california rolls are called california rolls and are rarer than maki.
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USA maybe?
Sushi in France looks like Nagiri (not often having the black belt though :-), inverted makis are called California makis.
IDK just reporting in.
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More than a little selection bias is in play there. You’ve found restaurants with advertising budgets, which in many places is not representative of restaurants overall. I’d wager the bias is even stronger in big tourist cities.
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No Just saying that you are incorrect is the way to go even here now.
It is well known that Paris is perfectly representative of all of France.
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In my European country you’ll order sushi as nigiri at any cornershop sushi place.
It’s most often sold as a set, where there’s typically 4 pieces of some roll with three ingredients and nori on the outside (but variations are not uncommon).
It’s quite close to what I’ve had in Japan. Although fish quality is very different.
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I’ve gotten sets with nigiri and maki in several cities around Japan. I guess my experience and yours differ.
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In my experience, the jam-packed, inside-out, sauce-drenched rolls are characteristic of chain restaurants and shopping districts in the west.
If you’re near a big city, chances are there are also small, independent restaurants that make more traditional nigiri, maki, and sashimi. What they serve is what I consider “normal” sushi. It’s the only kind I ever seek out.
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I was responding mainly to this:
The implication that “we” don’t consider nigiri to be normal sushi doesn’t match my experience at all. Among the people I’ve dined with, normal sushi is nothing like the “jam packed inside out rolls” you described. In other words, I think you’re overgeneralizing.
That’s one sense of the word, sure. And in the areas where I’ve had sushi, the more traditional style is more common than the stuff you described. (It might be easy to miss, though, especially if you only notice restaurants with significant advertising budgets.)
I mentioned what I seek out not as a definition of “normal”, but to demonstrate a response to what was already considered “normal” before I came along. I have rephrased that comment to try to make this more obvious.
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It is not wrong. It is a counterexample, much like some of the other replies you are receiving.
I am not going to dox myself to satisfy your quarrelsome self-importance. Good day.
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I have never been to a place that sold sushi and didn’t have the option to order just nigiri. Other than the packed sushi at the supermarket.
I’d agree that most people here think of maki when you say sushi, but nigiri is absolutely not considered “not normal” and california rolls are called california rolls and are rarer than maki.
Which restaurant is that?