"Today, conveyor belt sushi is quite common, but in the old days, sushi restaurants predominantly provided service face-to-face. The sushi chefs ended up using a lot of special terms to avoid unlucky phrases or to speak cryptically of certain things. These sushi-specific terms are also used between chefs to communicate effectively and succinctly express ingredients and techniques.
Learn these words to become a sushi pro!"
Start with the essentials!
Basic Sushi Vocabulary
Neta
"Neta" are the toppings placed on the sushi rice (...
Shari
"Shari" refers to the vinegared rice used in sushi...
Nigiri
Nigiri* is a kind of sushi where fish, shellfish, ...
Gunkan
“Gunkan” is a type of sushi where toppings such as...
Geta
“Geta” is the name of the wooden platform used for...
Sabi
"Sabi" refers to wasabi. The "wa" in "wasabi" is o...
Gari
“Gari” refers to the sweet, pickled ginger that is...
Kappa-maki
“Kappa-maki” is a type of sushi roll that uses cuc...
Tekka-maki
“Tekka-maki” is a type of sushi roll that uses lea...
Geso
“Geso” refers to the tentacle portion of the squid...
Hikari-mono
“Hikari-mono” refers to blue-backed fish such as h...
Odori
"Odori" means "dance" and refers to when prawns or...
Zuke
“Zuke” means "marinate", and refers primarily to t...
Toro
“Toro” refers to the fatty portion of tuna's belly...
Kan
“Kan” is a unit of measurement used to count piece...
Akami
“Akami” primarily refers to the lean, muscular par...
Agari
“Agari” refers to tea, especially the tea consumed...
Niche sushi vocabulary that even Japanese people don't know!
Murasaki
“Murasaki” is Japanese for "purple" and refers to ...
Namida
“Namida” is Japanese for "tears", and refers to wa...
Aniki
“Aniki” is Japanese for "older brother" and is a s...
Gyoku
“Gyoku” refers to sushi made with Japanese omelett...
Obi-zuke
“Obi-zuke” refers to the practice of wrapping a st...
Kataomoi
“Kataomoi” means "unrequited love" in Japanese and...
Don-shari
“Don-shari” refers to regular rice that has not be...
Sushi counting (cryptic)
“Liang” used in sushi restaurants to denote the nu...
























