# Sushi etiquette and planning a sushi restaurant meal **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [January 16, 2026, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sushi-etiquette-and-planning-a-sushi-restaurant-meal/1026745 "2026-01-16T16:25:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2026, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sushi-etiquette-and-planning-a-sushi-restaurant-meal/1026745/101 "2026-01-21T20:05:24Z")
Beyond my paygrade, I’m afraid. I was a mere English speaking waiter who suffered numerous insults from the Japanese sushi chefs which I did not understand. However, the head chef liked me enough that at closing time, he let me collect the left-over sushi from the belt, and I took it home for myself, my girlfriend and our cat to enjoy. Often as much as 2 or 3kg of the stuff, even the cat got tired of eating salmon and tuna sashimi. ---
**Author:** ![ricepad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b38774/32.png) [@ricepad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricepad)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2026, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sushi-etiquette-and-planning-a-sushi-restaurant-meal/1026745/102 "2026-01-21T20:21:39Z")
_Gunkanmaki_ (lit. ‘battleship roll’) is a unique form of roll, in which the loaf of rice (the _shari_) is wrapped with a narrow strip of _nori_ forming a kind of cup, with the rice as the base and the walls of the seaweed taller than the rice. It’s the basis for a lot of _nigirizushi_ that feature small or delicate bits which can be better contained in the cup vs being formed on top of the rice loaf. _Uni_ is common, with or without a quail egg, but so are different kinds of fish roe, including salmon, flying fish, or herring. _Gunkanmaki_ are a subset of _makimono_, which includes _tekkamaki_ (tuna roll), _kappamaki_ (cucumber roll) - which are both forms of _hosomaki_ or ‘thin rolls’ - _futomaki_ (thick roll), _uramaki_ (inside out rolls), and _temaki_ (hand rolls, which are frequently but not always cone-shaped). If you were being sent home with the leftovers, chances are good that the insults were good-natured. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2026, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sushi-etiquette-and-planning-a-sushi-restaurant-meal/1026745/103 "2026-01-21T20:53:34Z")
> [@scudsucker](#): > > For me, raw sea urchin with a raw quail’s egg on top (Makimono) . Having eaten that (sans egg) fresh on the beach, i was not impressed. > [@scudsucker](#): > > I also dislike eel in general, so eel nigiri is not for me. Same here. ---
**Author:** ![Disinfectus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/disinfectus/32/11085_2.png) [@Disinfectus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disinfectus)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2026, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sushi-etiquette-and-planning-a-sushi-restaurant-meal/1026745/104 "2026-01-21T20:59:07Z")
> [@ricepad](#): > > _Uni_ is common, with or without a quail egg, but so are different kinds of fish roe, including salmon, flying fish, or herring. Raw scallops are often served this way as well. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2026, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sushi-etiquette-and-planning-a-sushi-restaurant-meal/1026745/105 "2026-01-21T23:21:37Z")
> [@ricepad](#): > > _Gunkanmaki_ (lit. ‘battleship roll’) is a unique form of roll, in which the loaf of rice (the _shari_) is wrapped with a narrow strip of _nori_ forming a kind of cup, with the rice as the base and the walls of the seaweed taller than the rice. It’s the basis for a lot of _nigirizushi_ that feature small or delicate bits which can be better contained in the cup vs being formed on top of the rice loaf. I often get flying fish roe in this form. Yum. > [@Disinfectus](#): > > Raw scallops are often served this way as well. I had raw scallop sushi in Japan, once, but have never had it in the US. I was at an international event and there wasn’t enough food. (Europeans and Americans eat more than Japanese. Most of the guests were not Japanese. The hotel probably set out enough food for a group of Japanese. It was _not_ enough for this group, and i had come slightly late.) But most of the white people were squeamish about the raw scallops, so there was lots of that, and not much else. That was pretty much my dinner. It was delicious, and I’d love to try it again. ---
**Author:** ![Disinfectus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/disinfectus/32/11085_2.png) [@Disinfectus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disinfectus)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2026, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sushi-etiquette-and-planning-a-sushi-restaurant-meal/1026745/106 "2026-01-22T02:02:25Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > I had raw scallop sushi in Japan, once, but have never had it in the US. It’s a pretty common item in sushi bars in California. I find them to be delicious as well. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sushi-etiquette-and-planning-a-sushi-restaurant-meal/1026745.md?page=5)