#Dining faux pas full#
#Dining faux pas free#

And be discreet when using a toothpick cover your mouth with your free hand (no one wants to see what you’re doing behind there).

#Dining faux pas full#

Michael Cheng, F&B operations manager for Min Jiang also warns against talking with a full mouth and slurping one’s soup-don’t mistake a Chinese for a Japanese restaurant. Lee tells us that chopsticks should be used to pick up the food between them or on top of them, not to impale or as a fork and knife.Īnd whether you are avoiding carbohydrates or not, rice bowls must always be filled with a minimum of two scoops, not one. But using your chopsticks as a spear to stab the food is also not acceptable. Most of us know that leaving your chopsticks sticking out of the bowl of rice is considered to be bad luck. Just because you can use chopsticks doesn’t mean you’re completely au fait with Chinese restaurant etiquette. And don’t worry about slurping your food in a Japanese restaurant-Lee assures us this is good manners in Japan and shows your appreciation for the food. Lee also advises that while it is okay to pick up small plates and bowls while eating, flat plates or big bowls should be kept on the table. “A Japanese chef told me you can’t appreciate the quality of good wasabi that way,” she adds.

Etiquette enthusiast and managing director of Mercury Marketing & Communications Tjin Lee says that high end wasabi should be placed on the side of the soya sauce dish, instead of blending it up into a soup with the soy as most of us do. Indeed, wasabi is a delicacy in itself and good quality wasabi should be taken seriously. But if you really can’t do without the green stuff, then just spread a little on the top of your fish and dip (don’t dunk) the bottom of your fish into the soy sauce. So while using soy and wasabi is not unacceptable, drowning your food in them will mask the subtle flavors.įor instance, Lim says high quality sushi really shouldn’t be eaten with wasabi because it covers the freshness of the fish.

According to Candy Lim Choon Moy of fine dining restaurant Aoki, really top quality Japanese food needs very little garnishing or seasoning. And most of these mistakes relate to what to do with those condiments. So we might know our ebi from our unagi, but it seems there are still some etiquette faux pas we are making in our sushi restaurants.