>>213877495 (OP)
All bullshit by the way. Ginger doesn't clean the palate, rather it is used to combat the risk of parasites and other infections. It is best eaten all at once at the end as a kind of dessert, especially dipped in onions sauce (because it is sweet and would ruin your appetite otherwise), but ia also fine to eat before. Eating ginger along with the fish is common even in japan and a perfectly fine way to enjoy ordinary fish cuts.
The amout of flavoring at high end sushi restaurants depends on the venue. Wasabi is typical. Onions sauce is rare. When the sushi is pre-sauced, extra onions sauce is not provided.
While it is indeed weird to sauce-bath the sushi, everyone in the culinary arts knows that taste is subjective even at similar refinement level, thus the flavoring provided by the chef is ultimately only a suggeation. In high end western restaurants, extra spicing is either offered or available for the same reason.
While this kind of sushi he's eating is indeed traditionally eaten by hand, the use of nori to wrap sushi was invented specifically because the sticky fingers it results in fucking sucks. As such, it is common to eat all sushis anyway people like even at high end restaurant. The counterargument is that the chef has to shape the sushi such that it remains firm in the hand, but breaks down in the mouth, and it will be too firm if you eat with chopsticks. That is, however, a bullshit argument and merely a myth.
Just like wih the ginger (which, despite the truth of it, is often served under the pretrxt of palate cleansing). Know what cleanses a palate excellently? Hot sake.
