Sushi
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99 free Sushi trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
45 free sushi trivia questions with answers. Think you're a sushi expert? Put your knowledge to the test with our engaging 99-question sushi trivia quiz. From traditional nigiri to modern fusion rolls, discover interesting facts about this beloved Japanese cuisine. Whether you're a casual fan or a sushi enthusiast, this quiz will challenge what you know about sushi's rich history and techniques.
30 of 99 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which ingredient defines what sushi is, even when there is no raw fish at all?
Vinegared rice
Vinegared rice, called shari or sumeshi, is the one thing every sushi shares; plenty of sushi holds cooked seafood, vegetables or no fish at all.
Q 02Tobiko, the tiny roe sprinkled on many sushi rolls, comes from which sea creature?
Flying fish
Flying fish roe is tobiko, while masago, a similar roe with smaller grains, comes from capelin.
Q 03Why did the earliest sushi makers ferment fish with salt and rice?
To prevent spoilage without refrigeration
To prevent spoilage without refrigeration: narezushi fish was lacto-fermented, and the spent rice was thrown away before eating.
Q 04Which Japanese dish of thinly sliced raw fish falls outside the definition of sushi because it has no rice?
Sashimi
Sashimi skips the rice, so it isn't sushi, and it isn't only fish either: the name also covers other raw meat sliced thin.
Q 05Besides its sharp heat, what property is wasabi's pungent compound well known for?
It fights microbes
It fights microbes: allyl isothiocyanate, found in real and imitation wasabi alike, curbs microbial growth, which may help raw fish keep.
Q 06Farmers now raise poison-free fugu pufferfish by keeping them away from what?
Toxin-making bacteria
Toxin-making bacteria are to blame: fugu pick up their poison through what they eat, so fish raised on a controlled diet lose their toxicity.
Q 07Kanpyō, a classic sushi roll filling, is made from dried strips of which plant?
Calabash gourd
Calabash gourd is shaved into long ribbons and dried to make kanpyō, one of the classic single fillings of thin hosomaki rolls.
Q 08What is the main job of the vinegar mixture folded into sushi rice?
Flavor
Flavor is its job: short-grain rice supplies the stickiness on its own, which is why long-grain rice won't hold sushi together.
Q 09Which son, the heir shown in Jiro Dreams of Sushi, worked beside Jiro Ono at Sukiyabashi Jiro?
Yoshikazu
Yoshikazu, the elder son the film showed waiting to inherit, worked beside his father, while younger brother Takashi runs his own branch in Roppongi Hills.
Q 10Which cone-shaped sushi, with fillings spilling out the wide end, is meant to be picked up and eaten by hand?
Temaki
Temaki means 'hand roll', and the cone should be eaten right away, before the nori soaks up moisture from the filling and loses its crispness.
Q 11Which Edo-period chef is credited with inventing or perfecting nigirizushi around 1824?
Hanaya Yohei
Hanaya Yohei, from his shop in Ryōgoku, is widely regarded as the creator of modern sushi, the hand-pressed nigiri the world knows best.
Q 12What does the Japanese word 'sushi' literally mean?
"Sour-tasting"
"Sour-tasting" is the literal meaning, from an archaic conjugation of the word for sour, because the dish has a sour, savoury taste.
Q 13How is a conveyor-belt sushi meal usually priced?
By empty plates
By empty plates: staff count the stack, and each plate's colour or pattern marks its price, typically about 100 to 500 yen.
Q 21Kakinohazushi, a specialty of Nara, is wrapped in the leaves of which tree?
Persimmon
Persimmon leaves wrap kakinohazushi, which is really a form of oshizushi, sushi pressed into a block in a wooden mold.
Q 22Aburi oshizushi, pressed sushi seared with a butane torch, was invented in 2008 in which city?
Vancouver
Vancouver, the adopted home of California roll claimant Hidekazu Tojo, is where chefs first torched the fish on pressed sushi in 2008.
Q 23The original California roll used real cooked crab, but modern versions almost always substitute what?
Imitation crab
Imitation crab replaced the frozen king crab early chefs used; it is surimi, pulverized white fish shaped and cured to resemble snow crab legs.
Q 14Kappamaki takes its name from the kappa, a legendary Japanese water imp said to be fond of which filling?
Cucumber
Cucumber is the kappa's favorite, so the slim cucumber roll bears its name; it is traditionally eaten between pieces of raw fish to clear the palate.
Q 15Tekkamaki, the tuna roll, reputedly began as a gamblers' snack, much like which Western food?
The sandwich
The sandwich is said to be named for an earl who ate it at the card table, and one theory says tekkamaki fed gamblers in dens called tekkaba.
Q 16Inarizushi is sushi rice stuffed inside a pouch made of what?
Fried tofu
Fried tofu pouches called aburaage hold the rice, and the dish takes its name from Inari, the Shinto kami of rice and fertility.
Q 17Inarizushi is named after the Shinto god Inari, whose messengers are which animals?
Foxes
Foxes act as Inari's pure white messengers, and in ancient times the fox itself may have been revered as the kami of rice.
Q 18Gunkanmaki, the 'warship roll' built to hold loose toppings like roe, was invented in which Tokyo district?
Ginza
Ginza, at the Kyubey restaurant: a strip of nori wrapped around the rice formed a vessel, letting chefs serve soft toppings like roe and sea urchin.
Q 19Battera, a pressed mackerel sushi, takes its name from a Portuguese word meaning what?
Small boat
Small boat, from the Portuguese bateira, because the sushi or its wooden molds were thought to look like little boats.
Q 20Oshizushi, block-shaped sushi pressed in a wooden mold, is a specialty of which city?
Osaka
Osaka's oshizushi uses only cooked or cured toppings, never raw fish, and its best-known form is battera, pressed mackerel.
Q 24Chef Hidekazu Tojo says which two ingredients, starting with C and A, gave the California roll its name?
Crab and avocado
Crab and avocado, Tojo says, but many food historians describe a dish that evolved gradually rather than one chef's invention.
Q 25Salmon sushi only caught on in Japan after a late-1980s marketing push by which country's salmon industry?
Norway
Norway had a glut of farmed salmon that was safe to eat raw, and a partnership with Japanese supplier Nichirei got Japan eating raw a fish it had long cooked.
Q 26Which ingredient, unheard of in Japanese sushi, is a mainstay of sushi rolls in Brazil?
Cream cheese
Cream cheese is so common in Brazilian sushi that it turns up in rolls and other pieces alike, a twist unheard of in Japan.
Q 27Temarizushi is sushi pressed by hand into what shape?
A ball
A ball: temarizushi, literally 'ball sushi', is pressed by hand into a small round bite using plastic wrap.
Q 28Setsubun's ehōmaki roll is eaten in silence facing what?
The lucky direction
The lucky direction, which changes every year; the Kansai custom spread nationwide largely through convenience-store marketing.
Q 29In sushi-bar slang, 'murasaki' (meaning purple) refers to what?
Soy sauce
Soy sauce is shōyu in standard Japanese, but behind a sushi counter it goes by murasaki, the word for purple.
Q 30What does 'agari' mean in sushi vocabulary?
Green tea
Green tea is agari, literally 'rise up', in sushi slang, and better sushi restaurants often pour a premium tea called mecha.