17 Interesting Facts About Sushi

Here are 17 Interesting Sushi facts.

1-5 Sushi Facts

1. The Japanese considered raw salmon dangerous since Pacific salmon was prone to parasites. Norway had too much salmon and decided to focus on teaching Japanese consumers that Atlantic salmon was safe to eat raw. It took ten years for Salmon sushi/sashimi to finally become popular. – Source

2. Wasabi was originally eaten with sushi to kill bacteria and parasites in the fish. Now with better sanitary conditions it’s not needed and eaten just out of habit. – Source

3. The pickled ginger served with most sushi is meant to cleanse your palate between different pieces and can be offensive to the chef if used as a topping. – Source

4. In 2013, a genetic test of fish in restaurants and supermarkets showed 84% of Sushi restaurants in the US mislabeled and replaced tuna with Escolar, a fish known to cause prolonged, uncontrollable oily an*l leakage. – Source

5. The US has about 3,946 sushi restaurants and Japan has about 45,000. – Source

6-10 Sushi Facts

1. Sushi is meant to be eaten by hand, rather than with chopsticks. – Source

2. The reason sushi with cucumber is often called something with “kappa” is that there is a Japanese mythical creature called Kappa, which lives in ponds and likes cucumber. – Source

3. Sushi was originally a preservation method for the fish. Only later did people come to eat the rice. – Source

4. There is a company in Vancouver that provides sushi served on nude female models. The rules are no talking to the model, no touching the model, and no lewd gestures or comments. – Source

5. There are transgenic fish used in sushi to make it glow. – Source

11-15 Sushi Facts

1. Ikizukuri is a form of sushi where the fish is scaled, filleted, and served alive. – Source

2. Uni served in sushi restaurants are gonads, the only edible part and fivefold, of a sea urchin. – Source

3. The spicy sauce you eat on sushi is just mayonnaise mixed with sriracha. – Source

4. Eighty-six-year-old Jiro Ono is considered to be the world’s best sushi chef. Customers make reservations at his Tokyo restaurant, Sukiyabashi Jiro, up to a year in advance. His rice is described as a cloud that explodes in your mouth. He also holds the Guinness World Record for being the world’s oldest three-Michelin star chef. – Source

5. The most expensive price ever for a sushi-grade bluefin tuna was $1.8 million for a 222-kilogram fish in Japan. Over 80% of the world’s declining tuna stock is eaten by the Japanese. – Source

16-17 Sushi Facts

1. The longest sushi roll ever created measured 2,521.74 meters (about 8,270 ft.) and was made in Russia in December 2011 at the Sushkof Restaurant. – Source

2. Jeremy Piven was diagnosed with mercury poisoning because he ate sushi at least twice a day for 20 years. – Source