"sashimi" news and stories

Are you a sushi fact whiz? Test your food trivia smarts with this fun sushi trivia and facts quiz.

When I was a kid, eating raw fish was considered bizarre, and admitting a love for the stuff was comparable to outing oneself as a tree-worshipper or part-time sword swallower. In its own, strange way, it was cool, but it also put one in the same category as the classmate who ate paste or the kid who sometimes set fire to things.

My parents, who had lived in Asia, were huge fans of sushi and sashimi, which meant that much of my childhood was spent traveling from one squalid Japanese restaurant to another in search of honest-to-goodness fresh fish. My sisters and I usually crunched tempura while my parents gobbled down morsels of hamachi, toro, sake, and saba, rating the various venues and moaning about how good the stuff was. As time went on, the claims that this was "grownup food" started holding less and less water; by the time I was ten, the whole family was in love with raw fish.

Lots of people love a good piece of sashimi and nigiri sushi, and most of us are willing to pay more for a higher quality fish. The only question is whether or not you're getting what you paid for.

Last week there was an article in the New York Times about two teenage girls and their fish-y experiment. The students got 60 different samples of fish from 4 sushi restaurants and 10 supermarkets and sent them off to a lab in Canada. About 60% of the fish were mislabeled, and in general cheaper fish were masquerading as more expensive fish. Apparently no one knows what red snapper is.

There's a lot more science in the New York Times article, but what's really important is that so many people who should know what fish is what have been selling it under the wrong name. I'm sure that there are some unscrupulous vendors out there willing to make a quick buck, but I prefer to think that it's mainly just people making mistakes. What do you think about possibly paying more for cheaper fish?

Peter Menzel, author and photographer of the book Hungry Planet, has a fascinating photo essay on Time.com featuring "What the World Eats" - a look at the types of food families around the world consume, the amount a typical family will spend on groceries each week, plus their favorite foods or recipes.

The difference between countries, of course, is staggering. For instance, one featured American family spends an average of $341.98 on food each week, whereas the family from Chad spends approximately $1.23. The Japanese family lists sashimi and potato chips among their favorite foods, while the Egyptians say Okra with Mutton is one of their typical family recipes.

You can view the entire slide show at Time.com, and if you are interested in reading more, Menzel's book covers 30 families over 24 countries and 600 meals.

(thanks, angorian!)

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Remember last year, or maybe it was even two years ago, when I did an "occasional" series called School of Fish wherein I waxed poetically about everything from anago (sea eel) to tamago (sweet egg omelet)? Were you were paying attention?

Well, now's a good time to test yourself! Jonesblog has put together a lovely post full of pictures of various types of sushi. It's not super-detailed, but the pictures are pretty and the descriptions are good enough to help you order when you sidle up to the bar.