Sushi

Sushi eaters in my area are funny. They still treat it as a novelty instead of just going somewhere to eat food. This is usually how an outing goes:

First you need a group of people, but there are times I've seen just 2 people at a table. One person out of the group is the designated sushi expert and within 5 minutes becomes the designated Japanese culture expert. The only apparent qualification to gaining this designation is that you have eaten sushi at least once before. The expert makes suggestions as to what is good to eat and what things are probably most like regular American food. The rest of the group listen attentively and then start discussing the menu choices they are about to make. And then comes the safety net.

Typically, newbies are unsure they will like salmon and tuna in their raw form. So they also ponder the hibachi choices. You know, just in case.

When the food comes out, this always happens. Everybody asks what everyone else ordered and then stares at it. But let me make the distinction here between this situation in a sushi restaurant and this situation at an American restaurant. At your common steak house, you may ask your friend what they ordered and you may even ask if it's good. But you never ask if it's good and then watch them take a bite to see if they go choking out of their chair. That's the difference. At sushi restaurants, people here watch the expert eat their piece first and wait to see if everything is ok before they attempt their own piece. It's just a look on their face that makes this situation different.

The rest of the meal also usually incorporates more conversation about the food (at the steak house, you ask if it's good and then you move on to normal conversation topics) and then here is where the expert whips out Japanese culture as if they used to live there.

"You're suppose to eat the beans, not the whole pod, silly."
"Wasabi is pretty strong so be careful. It's actually a vegetable, did you know that?"
"There's tofu in your soup. It's really good though, you should try it."
"You just put it in your mouth and it clears your palate for the next piece. That's how the Japanese use it."

This goes on throughout the entire meal until they leave. I've been witnessing this over and over again to the point of wondering when people will ever just get over it and just eat the stuff.