How to eat HUGE veggie maki/sushi

[Astur]

It has always been my understanding that sushi is supposed to be eaten in one bite. Take whole item and put whole item in mouth, shew, swallow.

As a vegetarian I only eat veggie sushi so I can't speak for other kinds, but, I have been running into a bit of a problem with finding HUGE veggie maki in particular though a lot of the veggie sushi that I see is really big in general. It looks so pretty on the plate but then I am sometimes unsure what to do with it.

I finally ran into the worst offenders on a recent trip to San Francisco and one of the pieces that I tried was so long that it hit the back of my throat and I started choking, hard. So now I am a bit weary but still a veggie sushi lover. Even some rolls are large over all but then there are large pieces of greens and veggies on both ends.

So, what do I do? Is there a way to eat it in two bites? How do you do it with chopsticks? How do you keep it from falling apart? should I just pick it up with my hands then? i know that you are "allowed" to do that with pieces if you are polite about it.

I could really use some help here.

[miss margie]

The giant rolls are not traditional so there is no right way to eat them. We were once served a roll where the entire roll was fried. A gift from the chef. It was hard to eat and not to our taste at all. I was raised to accept gifts gladly, but that one was hard. we chose not to return to that place.

[Humbucker]

Isn't futomaki traditional? That's pretty huge. Maybe even wider than most fusiony American style maki.

[FoodFuser]

The threat of a nicely and ricely rolled Maki-Zushi
is a matter of using two hands and your gullet.

If gifted with softly filled wrap of crisp Nori
consider it item of Maki stuffed glory

And imbibe in the goodness
of a two--'fisted process

Of crinkling nori
and the mix be within.

[Astur]

Thanks everyone. I appreciate the comments. I am very self conscious about manners and especially with sushi, rooted with so much tradition I don't want to do the wrong thing or worse pick up bad habits that I take with me when I finally make it to Japan some day.

I will just pick them up using my hands from now on and take a bite. Let me tell you though, after choking once trying to the the "right" thing I will be more careful in the future about trying to decide when to do proper manners and safety!

[Uncle Yabai]

Well, what you're making isn't exactly traditional, so I wouldn't worry about tradition too much on how you eat it. That ship has sailed.

[AdamD]

It probably has too many ingredients. Rolls should not be huge and should only contain 1-3 ingredients at the most. When I want vegetable maki, I keep it simple-plum, cucumber, kanpyo or oshinko. It also keeps the sushi bill down!

What is in the roll that make it so big? An entire salad?

[enbell]

Veggie rolls ofter veer far of the beaten path, so your idea of a salad is not at all a stretch. I will echo what everyone has said so far:
use your hands
take two bite if necessary
if you must, ask the chef to cut into bites for you (if you are eating rolls that are so big, the sushi chef is probably not a purist, and won't likely be offended by your request)

[Breezychow]

Sushi is meant to be eaten with the fingers, & with one or two bites.

However, the food police aren't going to break in & take you away if it takes you more than two bites to eat a piece of sushi made by a sushi chef who obviously doesn't know his stuff.

[paulj]

Ask the chef to cut it into bite size pieces.

[onceadaylily]

Don't you hate that? We usually order a few specialty rolls that are altogether too busy. If the roll has ingredients that are easily bitten through, then I use the chopsticks (I put the half-bite down onto the plate as I eat, and then use the chopsticks to close it a bit more tightly before I pick it back up). But I have found that it is usually *more* graceful to just use my fingers, especially if eating something that has a bit more 'chew' to it.

Eating sushi with your fingers is

[goodhealthgourmet]

using your hands is perfectly acceptable, so if that's easier for you than chopsticks it's fine. and just eat it in two bites. i do it all the time with large pieces, and the sushi police have never come after me.