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mburnamfink 's review for:
The Zen of Fish: The Story of Sushi, from Samurai to Supermarket
by Trevor Corson
I'm the kind of person who has Opinions about sushi; Expensive opinions which are best described by the omakase course at Sushi Tsujita on Sawtelle in Los Angeles. So a book about sushi is very much my style. Corson frames the past, present, and science of sushi around the 12-week course at the California Sushi Academy (operated by legendary chef Toshi Sugiura, once sushi chef to the stars).
The history is fascinating. Sushi evolved from a dish of fish fermented in a box of rice for months to a form prizing freshness and bite-sized perfect that we'd recognize in 19th century Japan. The word itself refers to the rice, not the fish. Tokyo-style sushi got a major boost during the post-war occupation, when MacArthur's occupational government approved a standardized plan which allowed sushi stalls to prepare meals using people's limited rice rations. Entrepreneurs in the 80s, including Toshi, found a way to translate exotic raw seafood to American tastes, though not without a lot of editing of the Japanese sushi tradition. Giant rolls drenched in spicy mayo and crunchy tempura bits would be anathema to traditionalists. In Japan, sushi bars are an ultra-masculine place defined by the relationships between the chef and the regulars. America has pioneered innovations like 'all you can eat', sushi boats, and the Rainbow Roll. To meet demand for trained sushi chefs, and to hold back the absolute vestiges of spicy tuna roll barbarity, Toshi compressed the multiyear apprenticeship into a 12 week course open to anyone.
We follow Kate, a 20 year old white girl from San Diego, as she ventures into the very male and very Japanese world of the sushi chef. I'll admit that I didn't much care for Kate initially; she's afraid of her knives, and seems to be a bit of flake. But she preservers, graduates, and gets a job as a chef. Meanwhile, we learn all about the messy process of cleaning meats, the magic of the perfect nigiri, and the science of why fish on rice tastes so good, and why under no circumstances should you make a paste of wasabi and soy sauce and smash your sushi in it.
Corson touches on the problems of overfishing, fish farming, and the problems of rising demand for sushi and falling standards of production. I think a world where more people are eating sushi is a better world, and Corson gives a sense of how even Des Moines can have good sushi.
The history is fascinating. Sushi evolved from a dish of fish fermented in a box of rice for months to a form prizing freshness and bite-sized perfect that we'd recognize in 19th century Japan. The word itself refers to the rice, not the fish. Tokyo-style sushi got a major boost during the post-war occupation, when MacArthur's occupational government approved a standardized plan which allowed sushi stalls to prepare meals using people's limited rice rations. Entrepreneurs in the 80s, including Toshi, found a way to translate exotic raw seafood to American tastes, though not without a lot of editing of the Japanese sushi tradition. Giant rolls drenched in spicy mayo and crunchy tempura bits would be anathema to traditionalists. In Japan, sushi bars are an ultra-masculine place defined by the relationships between the chef and the regulars. America has pioneered innovations like 'all you can eat', sushi boats, and the Rainbow Roll. To meet demand for trained sushi chefs, and to hold back the absolute vestiges of spicy tuna roll barbarity, Toshi compressed the multiyear apprenticeship into a 12 week course open to anyone.
We follow Kate, a 20 year old white girl from San Diego, as she ventures into the very male and very Japanese world of the sushi chef. I'll admit that I didn't much care for Kate initially; she's afraid of her knives, and seems to be a bit of flake. But she preservers, graduates, and gets a job as a chef. Meanwhile, we learn all about the messy process of cleaning meats, the magic of the perfect nigiri, and the science of why fish on rice tastes so good, and why under no circumstances should you make a paste of wasabi and soy sauce and smash your sushi in it.
Corson touches on the problems of overfishing, fish farming, and the problems of rising demand for sushi and falling standards of production. I think a world where more people are eating sushi is a better world, and Corson gives a sense of how even Des Moines can have good sushi.