Sushi Trivia for Kids
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99 free Sushi Trivia for Kids trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This sushi trivia for kids quiz is written for children aged roughly 8 to 12, and for grown-ups who like their fish facts simple. It covers what sushi actually is (hint: it is about the rice, not the raw fish), which country it comes from, what nori and wasabi are made of, why the pink ginger is on the plate, how chopsticks work and where the California roll got its avocado. There are questions about salmon and tuna, about the water goblin the cucumber roll is named after, and about the restaurants where the sushi goes round on a conveyor belt. Every question was written so that a curious child can reason it out or learn something fun from the answer, and there is nothing scary or grown-up in here. It works well as a family quiz night, a classroom warm-up for a Japan topic, or a game to play while waiting for dinner at a sushi restaurant. Kids who love the Sushi Go! card game will recognise a lot of the pieces. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and food-history sources so parents and teachers can read them out with confidence. There are 99 free questions and no sign-up. For harder questions, try our main Sushi trivia page or our Japan quiz.
30 of 99 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which word do people in Japan say just before they start eating a meal?
Itadakimasu
Itadakimasu means 'I humbly receive', and it thanks everyone behind the meal, from the farmers and cooks to the plants and animals that became the food.
Q 02Sushi rice is seasoned with sugar, salt and which liquid?
Vinegar
Vinegar gives the rice its tang, and that seasoned rice, not raw fish, is what makes a dish sushi, so a roll with no fish in it still counts.
Q 03The word 'sushi' probably comes from an old word meaning what?
Sour-tasting
Sour-tasting is the likely root, describing the tang of the dish, so the name never meant raw fish and a roll with no fish in it is still sushi.
Q 04Thin slices of raw fish served WITHOUT rice are called what?
Sashimi
Sashimi is the fish on its own, while sushi is defined by its seasoned rice, which is why a slice of raw tuna with nothing under it is never sushi.
Q 05Edo, where nigiri sushi first became popular, is the old name of which Japanese city?
Tokyo
Tokyo got its new name, meaning 'eastern capital', in 1868, when the emperor moved there from Kyoto, and sushi made the old way is still called Edo-style.
Q 06Nori sheets are made using a drying process that is most like making what?
Paper
Paper-makers showed the way: in old Edo, people began shredding nori, pouring it onto screens and drying it into thin flat sheets with the same technique used for Japanese paper.
Q 07Which kind of rice do sushi chefs use?
Short and sticky
Short and sticky grains cling together, so a mound or a roll keeps its shape, while long-grain rice such as jasmine will not hold and the sushi falls to bits.
Q 08In Japan, standing chopsticks upright in a bowl of rice is rude because it is done at which ceremonies?
Funerals
Funerals are where a bowl of rice with chopsticks standing in it is offered to the dead, so doing the same at dinner looks like very bad luck.
Q 09Many restaurants in Japan show sushi and other dishes in the window using what?
Lifelike plastic models
Lifelike plastic models do the job of a menu, showing each dish before you order, and the first ones were cast in wax about a hundred years ago.
Q 10Most of the spicy paste served with sushi outside Japan is really made from what?
Dyed horseradish
Dyed horseradish, mixed with mustard, stands in because the real wasabi plant is so fussy that experts call it the hardest plant in the world to farm.
Q 11What is the pink stuff on the side of a sushi plate?
Pickled ginger
Pickled ginger, called gari, is nibbled between pieces of sushi to freshen your tongue for the next one, and very young ginger turns pink by itself as it pickles.
Q 12Which salty brown liquid do people dip sushi into?
Soy sauce
Soy sauce should only touch the topping: chefs say to tip the piece over as you dip, because rice dunked in the sauce soaks up too much and crumbles.
Q 13Which soft white food is cut into little cubes and floated in miso soup?
Tofu
Tofu is made rather like cheese: the milky juice of crushed beans is curdled and the curds are squeezed into blocks, which is why it is also called bean curd.
Q 21Which Japanese word is used around the world for the savoury 'fifth taste' of rich, meaty broths?
Umami
Umami was named in 1908 by a Japanese chemist, Kikunae Ikeda, who tracked the savoury taste of kelp broth down to a single substance; amami and nigami just mean sweetness and bitterness.
Q 22A California roll is usually filled with cucumber, avocado and what?
Imitation crab
The very first ones used real crab. The 'crab sticks' used now are made of mashed white fish shaped to look like crab.
Q 23The orange-and-white 'crab sticks' sold in supermarkets are really made from what?
Mashed fish paste
Mashed fish paste, called surimi, is usually pollock ground smooth, shaped into sticks and coloured on the outside to look like crab leg, and most brands contain no crab meat at all.
Q 14Besides chopsticks, which is a polite way to eat a piece of nigiri sushi in Japan?
With your fingers
With your fingers is the traditional way, even at smart sushi counters: you wipe your hands on the wet towel each diner is given, then pick the piece up.
Q 15Which country did chopsticks come from originally?
China
China is where chopsticks began more than 3,000 years ago, and the earliest ones were kitchen tools for cooking, long before anyone used them to eat.
Q 16How does a sushi chef shape the little mound of rice under a piece of nigiri?
Presses it by hand
Presses it by hand is right, and the word nigiri even means 'gripped', though in budget chains a robot now squeezes out thousands of rice mounds an hour instead.
Q 17Wasabi belongs to the same plant family as which of these vegetables?
Broccoli
Broccoli, cabbage and mustard are all cousins of wasabi, and the family's sharp mustard oils are why wasabi stings your nose instead of burning your tongue like chilli.
Q 18What is the little bamboo mat used for rolling sushi called?
A makisu
A makisu is woven from thin bamboo strips and cotton string, and cooks also use it to squeeze water out of vegetables and to shape rolled omelettes.
Q 19Temaki, a sushi 'hand roll', is wrapped into which shape?
A cone
A cone needs no rolling mat, so families in Japan lay out rice, nori and fillings and everyone wraps their own at the table.
Q 20Kappamaki rolls are filled with which crunchy vegetables, the favourite food of a water goblin called the kappa?
Cucumbers
Cucumbers are the kappa's favourite food in old stories, and people still leave them out as offerings at festivals to stay on the river goblin's good side.
Q 24A Philadelphia roll is usually filled with smoked salmon, cucumber and which soft ingredient?
Cream cheese
Cream cheese, which shares the Philadelphia name with a famous American brand, marks this roll as one made for American tastes, right down to the rice on the outside hiding the nori.
Q 25Which fish did Norway persuade Japan to start eating raw on sushi in the 1980s?
Salmon
Salmon caught wild can carry worms, so Japan always cooked it, until Norway's fish farmers, with more salmon than they could sell, sent a sales team in the 1980s to prove theirs was safe raw.
Q 26How is unagi, the freshwater eel served on sushi, usually cooked?
Grilled with a sweet glaze
Grilled with a sweet glaze is the style called kabayaki, and eel is never served raw because its blood is toxic to people until cooking breaks the toxin down.
Q 27Which is the most prized and expensive part of a tuna for sushi?
Fatty belly
Fatty belly, or toro, was once so unwanted in Japan that it was nicknamed 'cat-stepper', a fish even a cat would walk past, and most of it was thrown away or canned.
Q 28On a sushi menu, tamago is a yellow topping made from what?
Egg
Egg is what tamago means, and the topping is an omelette built by rolling up one thin layer after another in a rectangular pan, sweetened with sugar the way eastern Japan likes it.
Q 29Inarizushi, rice in a pouch of fried tofu, is named after a god whose messengers are which animals?
Foxes
Foxes are said to love fried tofu, which is why it wraps this sushi, and in some regions the pouches are made with pointed corners like a fox's ears.
Q 30Sushi rice served in a bowl with toppings scattered on top is called what?
Chirashi
Chirashi means 'scattered', and because nothing has to be rolled or shaped it is the sushi families make at home for festivals such as Girls' Day in March.