I love food. It’s fascinating how the simple act of eating does so much; it motivates freshmen to come to club meetings and creates rigid tradition among even the most carefree. Think about it — there are books written, blogs typed and television stations dedicated to the appreciation of whatever culinary works society can … um, cook up. I often think about how meals bring people together. But what I didn’t know is how eating one’s dish in a certain order can take a dish from good to great.

So I present to you my newest food-centered discovery: the order of eating.

In Asian cuisine, specifically sushi, eating in a systematic order is an ancient tradition. You start with a lighter fish, or so I’m told. In a flight, a series of items on a arranged on a plate, of sashimi, you always eat in threes. You go for the slightly denser yellow tail second, but only after you’ve cleansed your palette with pickled ginger — that pink stuff that they always put on the side next to the goose bump green wasabi paste.

Regarding that innocent-looking spice that makes grown men cry actual tears, it turns out that I had been eating wasabi incorrectly my whole life. You don’t top a sushi roll with the little green crumbles; rather you put a modest portion of the spice on one side of your mini-sauce bowl and pour soy sauce over it, creating a gradient of mild, diluted sauce — mild farthest from the wasabi chunk and spiciest next to it.

Lighter fish can take more spice; dunk it closer to the wasabi hunk. More oily, flavorful fish, like salmon, may not require quite as much heat, so a more mild flavor complements it.

Style becomes everything in this meal. How many times had I had this kind of food without giving much thought to what came first: the eel or the octopus?

Furthering the American stereotype, food tends to lead to more food; somehow eating sushi got me thinking of Thanksgiving. Do Americans have any sort of understanding to the coupling of flavors? I would say a little. Gravy enhances mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce sweetens turkey breast. But the order in which we will go about devouring our mega-meals is as diverse as what could possibly be served. There is no gravy-gradient in which to pair with dark or light meat, at least not that I’m aware of.

We don’t like to pair or separate staunch flavors in America — rather, we mash them together. Case in point: the Turducken. Whoever thought of sticking a chicken inside of a duck, then inside of a turkey was either a culinary mastermind or just got really bored with the classics. The funky fowl hit mega mart shelves as the hot item of the holiday over a decade ago, and culinary historians (yes, that’s actually a profession — I know, I’m tempted to change my major, too) have traced the Turducken to Louisiana and others to the United Kingdom as a sort of offshoot of what they call a Yorkshire Christmas pie. Eighteenth century royalty apparently were not content with a simple Christmas goose. Sorry, Scrooge. Sometimes the Turducken packing companies even go a step further and add sausage or beef into the mix. And though I claim a pescetarian lifestyle, I’ve sampled Turducken in all its poultry-confused glory. While there is a lot going on flavor-wise, there is no cultural road map on the best way to enjoy Turducken.

What is it about other cultures that have special sauces for different cuts of meat, special orders in which to consume each course, yet here in the melting pot of culture, citizens would sooner smother A1 Steak Sauce over everything? Or worse, cram as much of a meal into our faces as humanly possible, then head for the hills until we roll down them?

A typical Thanksgiving meal focuses on the sheer quantity of food, but not always the quality of which it tastes. Is the turkey a little dry? We’ll gripe about it, but eat it just the same. So long as the meal is not charred or expired, we are pretty content to eat the standard holiday dinner in any order we see fit. Consequently, if there is not enough of a particular cut of fish, the sushi is not rolled.

But at the end of the meal, no matter in what order you choose to chow down, eating is awesome. I was just as stuffed at the end of the ordered-eating sushi dinner that I will be at my own family Thanksgiving, though probably not as sleepy.

Renée is a senior in Media. She can be reached at [email protected].