Beyond “Delicious”: How Couples Can Share the Joy of Sushi Through the Five Tastes
You and your partner sit down at your favorite sushi bar back home. The first piece arrives, you both take a bite, and one of you says it: “Delicious.”
The other nods. “Mm. So good.”
And that’s usually where the conversation about the food ends. There’s nothing wrong with that. A great meal doesn’t need analysis to be enjoyed. But in my sushi class, I’d like to offer you another way to enjoy sushi together, one that turns a single word into a conversation. It begins with knowledge.
Two people, one piece of sushi, two different experiences
However close a couple is, you are still two different people. You grew up with different flavors at the family table. You have different palates, different memories of food, different ideas of what “good” tastes like. When you eat the same piece of sushi, you may be having two quite different experiences.
That difference is a gift, if you have a way to talk about it. The question is how. How do two people with different tastes share what they’re experiencing, and enjoy the sharing?
My answer is simple: give yourselves a common yardstick. A shared vocabulary.
Wine lovers have words for what they taste. So can sushi lovers.
Think of a wine tasting. People talk about acidity, tannins, body, and finish. Those words don’t make the wine taste better, but they let two people compare notes, notice things they would have missed alone, and discover what each of them truly loves.
Sushi has its own vocabulary, too. The most useful place to start is the five basic tastes: sweetness, saltiness, sourness, bitterness, and umami.
The five tastes in a single piece of nigiri
Here is something that surprises many guests: a single piece of nigiri can contain all five.
- Sweetness, saltiness, and sourness come from the sushi rice. Most sushi rice is seasoned with sugar, salt, and vinegar, so those three tastes are already there before the fish arrives.
- Bitterness comes with the wasabi, which brings a faint bitterness along with its sharp, clean heat.
- Umami comes from the fish on top. Each fish has its own depth of savory flavor.
Once you know this, a piece of sushi stops being simply “delicious.” It becomes a small composition of five elements, and you can start to notice how they are balanced.
Why no two pieces of sushi are ever quite the same
The strength of each of those five tastes changes from piece to piece, and from place to place.
- The topping changes the balance. A lean, clean white fish and a rich, fatty cut of tuna bring very different levels of umami, and they shift how the rice and wasabi come across.
- Every shop has its own rice. The proportions of sugar, salt, and vinegar differ from one restaurant to the next, so the rice itself tastes different. Some high-end shops even use red vinegar (akazu), which gives the rice a deeper color and flavor. I wrote about this in Akazu (Red Vinegar) and the Secret of Sushi Rice.
- Every pair of hands is different. The person shaping the nigiri changes it, too: the strength of their hands, how firmly or gently they press, even the warmth of their palms.
Put all of these together, and the possible combinations are practically endless. That’s what makes sushi worth paying attention to, and worth talking about.
Learning the language of sushi, together
In my class, you’ll go through the whole process of sushi making, from preparing the fish to seasoning the rice to shaping nigiri with your own hands. Seeing each step for yourself shows you where each taste comes from, and how small changes along the way shape the final bite.
I can tell you from experience that this changes everything. Before I learned how sushi is made, I enjoyed it the way most people do. After I learned what goes into each piece, I couldn’t look at a piece of nigiri the same way again. Every piece placed in front of me now carries the work of the person who made it, and I appreciate it far more than I used to.
Bring the conversation home
Here is what I hope happens after the class. You’re back at your local sushi bar. The first piece arrives. And instead of stopping at “delicious,” one of you says, “The rice here is a little sharper than ours, isn’t it?” And the other answers, “Yes, and it makes the fat in the tuna stand out.”
That’s the moment I’m hoping for. Not because you’ve become experts, but because you now share a language. Two people with different palates, comparing notes on the same piece of sushi, and enjoying each other’s point of view.
Knowledge shared with someone you love makes sushi more enjoyable, and it gives you one more thing to discover about each other.
Join a private sushi class for two
Every class is private, so the conversation can follow your curiosity. You can find the details on the Sushi Class page, or send me a message through the Contact page and tell me what kind of class you’d like.
— Kenji Kitabayashi