Sustainable Sushi Restaurants

by Clare Leschin-Hoar, Posted Nov 27th 2009 @ 3:00PM

MSC certified Oregon Coast Albacore,
MSC Wild Alaskan Salmon with Roe
and Hawaiian Kampachi. Photo: Bamboo Sushi.

While chef and restaurateur Nobu Matsuhisa continues to wrestle with boycotts by environmentalists and plenty of celebrity scorn for not removing endangered Atlantic bluefin tuna from his worldwide menu, savvy restaurateurs at sushi joints like Tataki in San Francisco, Bamboo in Portland, Ore., and Mashiko in Seattle have embraced 100-percent sustainable sushi menus, which means you can toss aside the handy seafood guide in your wallet and enjoy your meal guilt-free.

These thoughtful sushi chefs are substituting sustainable items like Arctic char for red-listed farm-raised salmon; and U.S. farm-raised kampachi in place of hamachi. At Tataki, they're even welding some clever culinary slight-of-hand by swapping silky sustainable sablefish for the red-listed farm-raised eel traditionally used for unagi. They've dubbed it "faux-nagi" instead, and customers are clamoring for more.

Look for flights of in-season seafood at Bamboo, where much of the menu is comprised of fish that have been certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). Executive chef Brandon Hill is offering a flight of six types of sustainable crab: Alaskan king crab; Canadian snow crab, Oregon Dungeness, Atlantic red rock crab, Florida stone crabs and blue crabs from Louisiana. In the spring or summer, a flight of tuna might mean skipjack, two different grades of yellowfin, blackfin and albacore. Wild-salmon season brings bites of Alaskan-caught king, coho or sockeye brought in from different parts of the state, including the Copper River, Sitka or Yakutat areas.

Casson Trenor, a partner in Tataki and consultant for Mashiko, says the idea of sustainability is catching on in the sushi arena.

"Mashiko made some real waves. It's a conventional sushi restaurant with traditionally trained Japanese chefs," Casson says. "Their making the switch to sustainable seafood has made a huge difference in getting other chefs to think about these issues."

Sheila Bowman, senior outreach manager for the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch Program says that what makes these sushi chefs stand out is their strong personal commitment to the ocean and issues of overfishing. Unfortunately, that mutual harmony on what makes for a sustainable sushi supper doesn't come with standing dinner reservations. When Bowman and several Seafood Watch colleagues showed up at the 26-seat Tataki at 10:30 p.m. on a sold-out Friday, they couldn't get a seat.

"It happens," says Trenor. "On the one hand I feel bad, but on the other, it's like, 'Hey, we're slammed at 10:30 p.m. Right on! You know?"

Filed Under: Food Politics, Restaurants
Tags: fish, nobu, Seafood Watch, sushi, sustainable sushi, tataki

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

11-29-2009 @4:08PM Diana said... Canadian snow crabs should not be considered acceptable seafood. The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans has mismanaged fisheries for decades, resulting in the commercial extinction of North Atlantic cod and the destruction of other commercial and non-commercial species. Snow crabs are vulnerable to overfishing, and the DFO and Canadian fishing industry cannot be trusted to maintain safe fishing levels.

Furthermore, Canadian snow crabs are a key species under boycott in the Canadian seafood boycott that will end the annual massacre of harp seal pups once and for all. The Canadian fishing industry's participation in and support of the seal slaughter has brought on this boycott, and snow crabs are one of the most important, if not the most important, species exported from Canada to the U.S.

For more information about the DFO, the Canadian seafood boycott, and snow crabs, visit http://www.harpseals.org and http://www.fisherycrisis.com
as well as other links listed on harpseals.org.
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