We've been talking about sushi a lot here at slashfood. Okay, so it's just me. I've been talking about sushi a lot, mostly from a let's-learn perspective - now we know shoyu, sara, gari, toro and hirame, and even omakase. What about nyotaimori?
I just recently got back from a trip to Chicago, and somehow ended up, afterhours, in the K Lounge, the back bar and lounge to Kizoku Sushi in Chicago's River North area. On my way out, as standard practice, a promoter handed me a full-color glossy postcard of upcoming events, which I promptly folded up and shoved into my purse. Upon returning to LA, I found it again, one side announcing Body Sushi in the K Lounge, the other side a photo of a naked woman covered in all the wrong places with oyster shells, shiso, and banana leaves. Gross. I threw the postcard away.
Nyotaimori is the practice of dining on sushi off a naked body, and right now according to Chicago's Metromix, at Kizoku, it costs $500 for four people to maneuver chopsticks in and among exposed body parts to pick up a slice of...raw red maguro. Or something like that.
Sounds kinda kinky.
But I still think it's gross.
A fraking amazing Battlestar Galactica cake
Iced Tea 101
Pierogies + cheese + onions + kraut = Parmageddon!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-17-2005 @ 4:57PM
Dmnkly said...
I have to say, I'm surprised that this took as long to hop the pond as it did. And doubly surprised that its first high profile appearance in the States is in my own backyard rather than either coast.
But yeah, I'll pass :-)
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11-17-2005 @ 6:36PM
Christopher Campbell said...
First high profile appearance? Do you guys not watch The Surreal Life?
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11-17-2005 @ 7:02PM
Dmnkly said...
Correction...
First high profile appearance in a realistic setting :-)
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11-17-2005 @ 7:12PM
Wing said...
The thing is, it's actually rather hard to balance sushi on one's body while, you know, breathing and all that. Especially when certain parts of one's body is... err... bouncier than most.
Don't ask me how I know this. =)
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11-18-2005 @ 1:24AM
Berkana said...
This, if anything, truly is food porn. Next, they'll be serving off of hairy obese men with man boobs.
"Is that fishy odor the fish . . . ?"
Freaknasty. Pure and simply freaknasty.
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11-18-2005 @ 3:46AM
Kelley Ritchey said...
I'm not that turned off by the prospect of this practice. I think the Japanese tradition emanates from eating as a sensual experience where presentation is important- sushi is presented as art.
In some implementation of this practice in the US, I believe there is plastic wrap between the sushi and the body- which might alleviate any hygenic concerns. But I'd try it with or without the wrap!
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11-18-2005 @ 9:39AM
Erichk said...
It might be tactile and delicious to eat on or be eaten off one's lover (or lovers) around a fireplace or indoor fountain in a bed of fake fur and silk... preferably with some mellow Burt Bacharach in the background and the whole thing occuring in a sort of slow dissolve-montage ala Skin-emax --- but at a posh restaurant with a patient but obviously slightly (and rightfully) disgusted paid model silently wondering exactly what shoes she will be buying with the two hundred dollars she's making being your dinner plate, and presumably envious or bewildered guests around, then I think it's just another example of how America always manages to miss the deeper meanings in favor of the gaudy trappings when exploring other cultures.
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