Sunday, July 15, 2007

I Hate Pretentious Japanophiles: Part 7 Million

Sushi for Two - New York Times
Oh, let's be pretentious and stupid! Obviously this guy hasn't taken check of the Japanese sushi restaurant industry in the last 20 years because in this article he is completely ignoring the proliferation of cheap kaiten sushi restaurants (the conveyor belt places) that have brought sushi to the level of the masses in Japan. I suppose while we're discussing enforcing cultural correctness overseas, the Japanese really ought to do something about their interpretation of ice cream and pizza. ("Ideal taste of sea goodness and mayonnaise" anyone?)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sushi is still a bit of a mystery for most westeners. I have to explain several times a year to friends/family that "No, it's not all raw fish" and that "seaweed is really tasty, not at all gross".

I was amazed to read in the article the abandonement of chopsticks...never having come across that before. Had you?

The article I did enjoy was this one:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/15/opinion/15shaw.html
I've been avoiding sushi with raw fish while pregnant, but have indulged generously in oshinko and ebi tempura maki.

Everytime we got for sushi, N and I come to agree that it is really the food of the Gods. So tasty. Mmmm...

Pam said...

I've heard and read that it is acceptable to eat sushi with your fingers, but I've only seen it in practice a few times.

Way back when I was pregnant (13 years ago!) and living in Hawaii I asked my doctor about eating sushi. He didn't say I couldn't eat it, but he did mention the parasite issue and recommended that I not make it a regular part of my diet. That sounded reasonable to me.

The spicy sushi rolls you usually find on sushi menus in the US are what I find really odd. I don't recall ever coming across those in Japan. But I really don't have any problem with cultures borrowing and adapting things from other cultures. That's how the world has fabulous things like Japanese kanji, green tea ice cream and the nice little creperie that just recently opened up in my (not French) town.