Wet paper towel, not plastic wrap.

Packing sushi for lunch is easy once you know the one trick: keep the rice sealed and moist, and let the fish breathe a little.

Plastic wrap traps steam and turns the rice into a gluey, wet mess — and it makes the fish sweat. Instead, lay your sushi pieces in a single layer on a lightly dampened paper towel (wring it out so it’s not dripping), then tuck that into an airtight container. The towel keeps the rice from drying out without suffocating the fish. If you’re worried about sogginess, put the paper towel on the lid side or in the corner, so it’s not directly pressed against the fish.

If you have time, the bulletproof move is to pack the rice and fish separately and assemble at lunch. But for a normal morning commute, the damp towel method works. Skip the refrigerator if your commute is under two hours — cold air dries out rice and makes it hard. A cool pack in the bag is fine, but keep it on the side, not right under the sushi. Soy sauce and wasabi go in tiny separate containers or those little plastic fish bottles, not poured over everything.

Your sushi doesn’t need to be fancy, it just needs to not eat like cardboard at noon.