Pressed By The Chef’s Loving Hand
So, to “nigiru” is indeed to grasp. Nigirizushi (sushi > zushi, at the end of a compound word; this makes it easier to say) is grasped by the chef and pressed together. It is formed of some sort of meat pressed on top of sushi. The above picture shows ebi, or lobster, in this case. The meat is pressed on top of the sushi while the sushi is in an oblong rectangular box (which simply means that fish/ lobster face forward when being pressed). The sushi (vinegared rice) thus packed provides a stable foundation, and the nigirizushi can then be served as-is.
A variant is known as the gunkan maki (“battleship roll”), using nori seaweed to form a perimeter around the sushi rice that constitutes a “vessel” that can be filled with soft toppings. This invention, pioneered by the Ginza Kyubey restaurant in 1931, greatly expanded the variety of toppings that could be used with nigirizushi.
Now, for pretty much all of the history of sushi, the idea of this being done by a machine was ludicrous, but you may want to take a peek at the video below. Behold – a robot with a silicon hand that can pick up squishy meat correctly, and put it on top of sushi! The idea was to have something that could save time. I doubt it’s economical, but it sure is nifty.
Incidentally, the meat that is put over sushi rice like this is cut in two and served in pairs, allowing the eater to appreciate the taste more (by being, well, less of a chore to handle). This is sensible. I just wanted to mention this to put the above video in context.
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Rice You Can Hold
For once, eating with your hands (in Japan) is OK.
To nigiru is “To Grasp.”
O-Nigiri (Japanese: おにぎり、お握り) is sushi that you grasp while eating it.
Put simply, onigiri are rice balls with fillings of some kind.
Traditionally, these fillings included:
- Pickled dry plums (umeboshi)
- Salted bonito (katsuo-bushi)
- Konbu seaweed (konbu)
- Cod roe (tarako)
Cod roe for the Japanese market is actually one industry that has existed for many years in my tiny coastal community here in Nova Scotia, though overfishing etc. has decreased the quantity, and the Japanese economy has not been booming, either.
Anyway, the point behind these traditional fillings is simple: anything salty or sour acted like a natural preservative. The onigiri long precedes the electric refrigerator, after all. (If you didn’t know that, now you do!)
Today, onigiri are highly popular in Japan as a snack food. A wide variety of flavors and fillings are employed. Onigiri are widely sold at convenience stores all across Japan.
Note that the rice in onigiri is actually not vinegared, thus, it is not itself sushi. Nonetheless, onigiri are common, easy to make, and do not require any worrying about servings or other issues a chef might otherwise face, so you will find them in any sushi-ya (sushi restaurant) alongside quote unquote “sushi.” You can’t miss them. They’re everywhere.
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You Know, The Rice Is The “Sushi.”
That’s right. It’s the rice, not the fish, that is, quote unquote, “sushi.” Sliced fish, usually skewered, is actually called sashimi.
If you didn’t know this, and even if you did, stay tuned for plenty more about the wonderful world of Japanese restaurants.
Sushi rice is actually vinegared rice, with the vinegar providing taste that rice alone would not. Also, Japanese rice is a type that neither clumps together to insane levels, nor is too long-grained to clump properly at all. Instead, it’s a sort of middle ground, requiring paste to really retain a clump. A very common way to get sushi rice to stay together is by using nori, a type of seaweed.
A Fictional Scene
A young man of college student age, named Akira is entering a restaurant with his girlfriend, a woman of similar age named Naomi.
A waitress comes to greet them, making a bow.
Waitress: Irrashaimase. Nanmei-sama desu ka?
Akira: Futari desu.
Waitress: Douzo. Kochira e.
The Translation
Waitress: Welcome. How many are in your party?
Akira: Two people.
Waitress: Please, right this way.
Irrashaimase: A Basic of Hospitality
Irrashaimase is an over-the-top, honorific method of speaking. “Irasshai” is less over-the-top. However, a high class restaurant will use this archaic way of speaking to show customers the highest possible level of respect.
Strictly speaking, in linguistic terms, this is to raise the customers to the highest respect level, above that of the host/ hostess.
Nanmei: How Many Names Have You?
Taken too literally, “nanmei” is a compound word with “nan” being a “what?” type question, and “mei” being “name.” It’s really like asking how many heads of cattle there are in a herd, except we’re talking about people, not cows.
I feel very comfortable phrasing this as asking “how many people are in your party?”
Desu Ka: Polite Question Format
Putting desu affirms the sentence, and adding ka makes the sentence a question. Thus, “How many people are in your party?”
At any rate, it’s simply being polite.
Futari
Futari is a word that is, in kanji, literally “two” + “people.” Thus, two people, a pair, a couple, and so forth.
In response to this kind of question, “two people” seems a good way to look at it, but the word itself is more flexible than this.
A literal “party of two” would be “futarizure” (“tsure” at the end of a compound > “zure”), but what’s the point of being so technical? It’s the hostess trying to bend over backwards so that the guest can relax.
You will see this point arise again.
Douzo
Speaking more literally, we could take this like, “By all means.” That is, by all means, take your time. In reading this too literally, we would miss a more idiomatic sense: “Please.” It’s a gentle and friendly way of saying please that does not imply an obligation, but which confers right-of-way to the customer.
Kochira e
“Kochira” is quite literally this way, as in, this side, in the direction I am standing in.
The particle e indicates a general direction, and not a specific location. Thus, it works hand in hand with “this way.”
What We Didn’t See
We did not see either a copula (which works like is/ am/ are, like desu above) or a verb for the last sentence. Technically we didn’t see a “topic” either (in crude terms, the subject of the sentence) because the customers are well aware that they are the topic. Nor does the waitress need to spell out that they should walk in her direction. This is obvious.
Japanese is a need-to-know language. If you already know it, people don’t want to say it and waste your precious time.
This is another feature of normal Japanese speech that is good to remember.