Speaker 1: Guess what will what's that mango? So sushi's obviously everywhere now,
Speaker 1: but do you remember when we were kids how exotic
Speaker 1: it was In first grade, I've done this report on Tokyo,
Speaker 1: and I remember the idea of eating raw fish just
Speaker 1: seeming like so unimaginable to me. But that same year,
Speaker 1: one of my friends got up in front of the
Speaker 1: class and he told everyone he'd been to Japan and
Speaker 1: he'd actually tried sushi and he claimed it was delicious.
Speaker 1: I guess everybody else thought that was pretty discussed. Yeah,
Speaker 1: no one believed to him, like they thought it was
Speaker 1: gross and you know, it's raw fish. So being first grader,
Speaker 1: as everyone was yelling like yuck and gross and just
Speaker 1: shaking their heads in disbelief. And then like this, one
Speaker 1: girl raised her hand and asked him, but what sushi
Speaker 1: actually tastes like? He just smiled and said bubba. So
Speaker 1: for years I actually thought like, maybe sushi does tasting
Speaker 1: bubble gum. But of course now I do know what
Speaker 1: it tastes like, and sushi's everywhere. But it made us
Speaker 1: wonder how did we start eating these delicious fish rolls
Speaker 1: in the first place, and how did it come to America,
Speaker 1: and are you really supposed to be eating sushi with
Speaker 1: her hands instead of your chopsticks. Let's dive in. Hey
Speaker 1: their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will
Speaker 1: Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend
Speaker 1: man guest Ticketer and on the other side of the
Speaker 1: soundproof glass, just chowing down on a spicy tune or all.
Speaker 1: Look at the thing, it's just drenched in soy sauce.
Speaker 1: That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Tristan, why are
Speaker 1: you using the sport? Oh man, he's got the wassabi
Speaker 1: mix in there too. All these problems, but that actually
Speaker 1: brings us to what today's episode is all about, and
Speaker 1: that's an intervention for Tristan. Yeah, actually, I'm kidding, all right.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of common misconceptions about sushi out there,
Speaker 1: and not just about how to eat it, but how
Speaker 1: it's made, where it comes from, and even what's in it.
Speaker 1: So on today's show, we're gonna take a good hard
Speaker 1: look at what we think we know about sushi and
Speaker 1: see if we can set the records right on one
Speaker 1: of America's most popular and misunderstood finger foods. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: why don't we start right there, because that's amazing to
Speaker 1: be Sushi is actually a finger food, and that's actually
Speaker 1: the preferred way to eat it because sushi chefs like
Speaker 1: to loosely pack their sushi. That way you can fall
Speaker 1: a part in your mouth and the flavors can mingle better.
Speaker 1: The problem is so many Americans are hung up on
Speaker 1: eating sushi with chopsticks that chefs in the US actually
Speaker 1: packed their sushi tightly, and that's how it will hold
Speaker 1: together when grab with the sticks. It seems like such
Speaker 1: a small thing, but a lot of people actually shy
Speaker 1: away from sushi because they think you have to use
Speaker 1: chopsticks to eat it. Really still, so Americans still don't
Speaker 1: like chopsticks. I kind of felt like we've gotten over
Speaker 1: that by this point. Yeah, apparently not so. I was
Speaker 1: looking at this market research from you gov and they
Speaker 1: conducted the survey on chopstick proficiency. This was back in
Speaker 1: two thousand fourteen, and I found that seventies seven percent
Speaker 1: of Americans preferred to use a knife and fork over
Speaker 1: chop sticks when they eat Asian food. And most of
Speaker 1: that reason is that Americans are just not good with chopsticks.
Speaker 1: The survey claimed that thirty four percent of the country
Speaker 1: rates is proficiency with chopsticks as fair or better, while
Speaker 1: related as a not very good or terrible. Wow. And
Speaker 1: so what about the other quarter of the country. They
Speaker 1: haven't even tried chop sticks, explains it. The good news
Speaker 1: for them is that counter to most people is thinking
Speaker 1: it's perfectly proper to eat most kinds of sushi with
Speaker 1: your fingers, and the only exception is sashimi. You know,
Speaker 1: sushi means those thinly sliced pieces of fresh, rassy food
Speaker 1: and those are served without rice. And because rassy food
Speaker 1: can be a little slippery to handle with your hands,
Speaker 1: using chop sticks is the way to go for those.
Speaker 1: But maki rules or nagiri, you can use either chopsticks
Speaker 1: or your fingers for those. All right, So we're breaking
Speaker 1: down the barriers on today's show. And actually, I feel
Speaker 1: like another big deterrent for people who don't eat sushi
Speaker 1: or are some of the words that you just mentioned,
Speaker 1: you know, the proper terms for different kinds of sushi,
Speaker 1: And obviously these are Japanese words that anybody can look up.
Speaker 1: But you know, for people that just want to eat
Speaker 1: lunch and not have to learn a new language while
Speaker 1: doing it, that that unknown vocabulary can actually be a
Speaker 1: little bit in intimidating. Yeah, but if you know the definitions,
Speaker 1: it isn't intimitting at all. So like the words sushii
Speaker 1: literally means body cuts, so the whole dishes right there
Speaker 1: in its name, right, And some of the other terms
Speaker 1: are less literal, but they still give these details that
Speaker 1: can help you distinguish between the different kinds of sushi.
Speaker 1: So taking a geary for example, it's the kind of
Speaker 1: sushi that consists of a small amount of rice with
Speaker 1: a slice of raw fish on top. And the word
Speaker 1: geary actually translates to grip or grasp, so again, in
Speaker 1: a way, that's the whole dish, right, the slice of
Speaker 1: fish grips the rice mount. And it's the same with
Speaker 1: another kind of sushi, the maki roll. And this is
Speaker 1: what most Americans picture when they think of sushi. You know,
Speaker 1: it's the colorful circles of fish and veggies, and that's
Speaker 1: surrounded by sushi rice and then this outer layer of
Speaker 1: seaweed and the small pieces are cut from this longer
Speaker 1: cylindrical rolls that are formed using I'm sure you've seen
Speaker 1: it for those like woven bamboo mats. There's a called
Speaker 1: maki su and you can probably guess the mat is
Speaker 1: where the maki gets its name. All right, So there
Speaker 1: you go, the most common types of sushi explained. You've
Speaker 1: got body cuts, gripping fish, and matt rolls and actually
Speaker 1: saying it out loud I can. Yeah, Yeah, it's probably
Speaker 1: best that we stick with the Japanese words. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: you know, you know what, I just realized we're only
Speaker 1: a few minutes into this discussion and we've already messed
Speaker 1: us off. What do you mean by that? Well, we've
Speaker 1: been talking about sashimi as if it's a kind of sushi,
Speaker 1: But like I mentioned earlier, sushini doesn't actually include rice,
Speaker 1: so by definition it can't be sushi. Oh wow, you're right.
Speaker 1: But at least the mistake gives us a chance to
Speaker 1: talk about what's maybe the biggest misconception about sushi, and
Speaker 1: that's that the word itself means raw fish. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's an easy mistake to make because we
Speaker 1: think of raw fishes like the defining component of the cuisine.
Speaker 1: But an actuality, sushi is all about the rice, and
Speaker 1: that's what the word really refers to it's that sour
Speaker 1: tasting rice. Yeah, and if you look at the history,
Speaker 1: you can actually see why rice deserves the top billing.
Speaker 1: This is another thing most people don't know, but the
Speaker 1: earliest form of sushi actually comes from China and not Japan.
Speaker 1: It was later named narazushi, and it started as a
Speaker 1: form of food preservation back in the third or fourth
Speaker 1: century BC. It's different from the fresh fish we know today.
Speaker 1: Narzushi was actually made by packing a wooden barrel with
Speaker 1: all these layers of raw and salted fish and and
Speaker 1: then cooked rice and then they'd set this heavy weight
Speaker 1: on top and you'd let the whole thing for meant
Speaker 1: for up to a year, right, And this work just
Speaker 1: like with any other fermentation. You've got friendly bacteria that
Speaker 1: fed on a substance. In this case it was starch
Speaker 1: and the rice, and then it produced lactic acid in turn,
Speaker 1: and the resulting acid is what helped preserve the fish
Speaker 1: by slowing the growth of harmful bacteria you know that
Speaker 1: would otherwise cause it to rot. And the technique is
Speaker 1: thought to have first been used by farmers who lived
Speaker 1: along the Makong River in Southeast Asia. So during the
Speaker 1: rainy months, the river would sometimes flood and the water
Speaker 1: would wash tons of carp into these nearby rice paddies,
Speaker 1: and they didn't want this carp to go to waste,
Speaker 1: and so the farmers came up with a new way
Speaker 1: to store the fish until they were needed. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's pretty ingenious. But what's funny to me about this
Speaker 1: proto sushi or early sushi, is that nobody actually ate
Speaker 1: the rice, and despite the crucial role it played in
Speaker 1: the fermentation process, the rice was just tossed away afterwards,
Speaker 1: and it was only the fish that was eaten. I mean,
Speaker 1: we are talking about super sour year old rice. I
Speaker 1: can't exactly blame them for not eating it. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: the fish wasn't in his prime either. So I actually
Speaker 1: asked gave what it tasted like, and he was saying,
Speaker 1: after a year in the barrel, it would morph into
Speaker 1: this pungent, gelatinous, almost cheese like. I mean, it couldn't
Speaker 1: have been any better tasting than all that sur rice.
Speaker 1: That is disgusting, but you know, if it makes you
Speaker 1: feel any better. The Japanese did start eating both the
Speaker 1: fermaute fish and the rice sometime after sushi made its
Speaker 1: way to Japan, and this was I think around the
Speaker 1: ninth century, so Buddhism was spreading throughout the country at
Speaker 1: the time, and fermitte sushi helped meat that growing desire
Speaker 1: for protein source. You know that that would fit into
Speaker 1: their meatless diet, even if it did taste pretty sour.
Speaker 1: I guess yeah. So I've read that the sour taste
Speaker 1: was actually a plus for the Japanese at that time
Speaker 1: because the rice vinegar industry had just taken off. This
Speaker 1: was in the thirteenth century, and people actually came to
Speaker 1: appreciate a little sour flavor in their cuisine because vinegar
Speaker 1: was so popular in the markets. In fact, when Cooke's
Speaker 1: found a faster way to for men cure all that
Speaker 1: fish without the use of rice, Japanese started adding vinegar
Speaker 1: to their sushi rice just so wouldn't lose that sour taste,
Speaker 1: all right. So, so by this point we've got non
Speaker 1: fer minute rice seasoned with vinegar, just like the kind
Speaker 1: used in sushi today. So what about the fish that
Speaker 1: when does it go from being pickled to being raw
Speaker 1: like we're used to it now. So raw fish sushi
Speaker 1: didn't actually become the norm until after refrigeration became such
Speaker 1: a big thing in the twentieth century, but it did
Speaker 1: start to crop up in some places during the eighteen hundreds.
Speaker 1: So at that time, Tokyo or Edo as it was
Speaker 1: called back then, was fostering the next generation of sushi.
Speaker 1: And all these mobile food stalls that have begun to
Speaker 1: crowd up in the streets, and this one man, his
Speaker 1: name was Hanaya Yohi, he set himself apart from the
Speaker 1: crowd by offering what's often considered the first example of
Speaker 1: modern nagari sushi. So Yo has a great story. He
Speaker 1: opened his stall near bridge in Tokyo that crossed the
Speaker 1: Sumida River, and not only was that area highly traffic,
Speaker 1: but it was easy access to all this fresh fish.
Speaker 1: And in fact, the fish Yohai served was so fresh
Speaker 1: that there was no need for men or cook it.
Speaker 1: All you have to do was cut into slices and
Speaker 1: hand pressed them onto mounds of vinegared rice, and the
Speaker 1: process took minutes rather than the hours of days that
Speaker 1: his competitors were, you know, spending curing fish. The Japanese
Speaker 1: public fell immediately in love with it, and they loved
Speaker 1: the fresh taste, but they also loved the fast prep time,
Speaker 1: and his business just exploded, and all these years later,
Speaker 1: it's still the most popular kind in Japan. I think
Speaker 1: what's most surprising to me about the story is hearing
Speaker 1: that sushi was a common street food in those early days. Like,
Speaker 1: we have this idea in the US of sushi being
Speaker 1: this really fancy, upscale cuisine, all these traditions and rules
Speaker 1: that have to be observed. It's a kind of stigma
Speaker 1: that can make sushi feel inaccessible to some people. So
Speaker 1: it's it's actually pretty cool to hear about its humble origins. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the story is helpful in making it more approachable, but
Speaker 1: let's be honest, the big reason that people view sushi
Speaker 1: is such a posh food is the price. I mean,
Speaker 1: you can definitely find roles with imitation crab another kind
Speaker 1: of filler everywhere from grocery stores to gas stations, airports,
Speaker 1: but anything with actual sushi grade sushi is gonna cost you.
Speaker 1: But it's definitely true, and I know that's the case
Speaker 1: even in Japan, where rising costs have made sushi much
Speaker 1: more of a special occasion food than that maybe it
Speaker 1: once was. Yeah, I don't think the average Japanese citizens
Speaker 1: would dispute that quality sushi is pricy and worth the price,
Speaker 1: But the bigger sticking point for them would actually be
Speaker 1: what Americans due to a food that costs so much.
Speaker 1: Because I'm not sure if you've noticed, but we don't
Speaker 1: tend to respect sushi the way it ought to be.
Speaker 1: I saw you given that side, I go answer Tristan
Speaker 1: that I don't want to pick on him anymore, but
Speaker 1: I will mention as a general public service announcement that
Speaker 1: you're you're really only supposed to use a tiny bit
Speaker 1: of soy sauce with your sushi, you know, so you
Speaker 1: don't drown out the other flavors. Most Japanese sushi chefs
Speaker 1: actually brush a little bit of their own homemade sauce
Speaker 1: right onto each piece of fish before served, And the
Speaker 1: same thing happens with with sabi, you know, when when needed,
Speaker 1: chefs will include some fresh was sabi between the fish
Speaker 1: and the rice. Of course, none of this really happens
Speaker 1: in the US, because chefs know that American sushi eaters
Speaker 1: like to add those condiments themselves, you know, often to
Speaker 1: access that. I've told you the story about my father
Speaker 1: in law when we were at a restaurant one time
Speaker 1: years ago, and he just had this brain lapse and
Speaker 1: for some reason was thinking that it was avocado. Took
Speaker 1: a big bite of was sabi, just said, oh, dear Lord,
Speaker 1: and then turn bright red. But yeah, my daughter did
Speaker 1: the same thing. She's like guacamole. Yes, and that is
Speaker 1: on fire. But I mean it makes sense, right, I.
Speaker 1: I kind of wish we did it the Japanese way,
Speaker 1: And it seems like a better system than diting this
Speaker 1: like big stack of sushi and dipping it in soy
Speaker 1: sauce and hang it all fall apart. That's just so messy, definitely,
Speaker 1: you know. I I did pick up a few tips
Speaker 1: on the subject though, from Gero on No you know,
Speaker 1: the world famous sushi chef was in the documentary that
Speaker 1: Netflix seemed to suggest to everyone in the world. He
Speaker 1: says that the best way to apply soy sauce after
Speaker 1: the fact is by dipping a piece of pickle ginger
Speaker 1: and then dabbing it across the top of the fish.
Speaker 1: I feel like that's a sushi life, yeah, isn't it.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know. He also has some solid advice
Speaker 1: for people who want to eat a geary using chopsticks.
Speaker 1: He suggests they think of the sushi as a portable shrine.
Speaker 1: Place your chopsticks parallel to the tray as if they're
Speaker 1: the shrines carrying poles, and lift up the sushi by
Speaker 1: grasping it along its sides. If you grasp it through
Speaker 1: its middle with your chopsticks, it will surely fall apart.
Speaker 1: I love that he references shrines carrying poles, like everyone
Speaker 1: knows that shrine should be carried with poles, right, exactly. Um,
Speaker 1: But still that that's a great tip for Americans. So
Speaker 1: what are you saying? We talked a little bit about
Speaker 1: how America developed a taste for raw fish in the
Speaker 1: first place. Yeah, And to help with that, let's call
Speaker 1: up Trevor Courson. So he wrote an amazing book called
Speaker 1: The Story of Sushi, and I'm pretty sure he can
Speaker 1: tell us how it made the trip state side. Our
Speaker 1: guest today is the author of a fascinating book called
Speaker 1: the Story of Sushi, an unlikely saga of raw fish
Speaker 1: and rice. Trevor Courson. Welcome to Part Time Genius. Thanks
Speaker 1: for having me on. Trevor, this isn't the first book
Speaker 1: you've written that was related to see Life. Your first book,
Speaker 1: which got a ton of critical acclaim was the Secret
Speaker 1: Life of Lobsters. So I'm curious what turned your interests
Speaker 1: towards sushi and writing this book. I had gone to
Speaker 1: Japan just kind of by accident when I was a
Speaker 1: high school student on this summer scholarship that I just
Speaker 1: happened to get, and it was I went and lived
Speaker 1: with a homestake family, and so I had I always
Speaker 1: had that experience. It was always issued in Japan. I
Speaker 1: ended up going back later as a college student and
Speaker 1: studying Japanese language and living in Japan for a while.
Speaker 1: Um so uh. And the thing that had happened before
Speaker 1: I went to Japan the first time this was and
Speaker 1: so sushi was still very unusual at that time, and
Speaker 1: my high school teacher said, oh, you're going to Japan
Speaker 1: this summer the scholarship. The thing is you're gonna have
Speaker 1: to not be able to eat raw fish. You don't
Speaker 1: have to know how to eat sushi. And so there
Speaker 1: was like one sushi restaurant in town, and my teacher
Speaker 1: bought a box to takeout sushi, brought up to school
Speaker 1: and made me eat it, like, sit down in the office,
Speaker 1: try eating to prepare me for this, And I thought, wow,
Speaker 1: here's the cuisine that is truly repulsive, and like, I
Speaker 1: was horrible, How am I going to survive this experience?
Speaker 1: But the funny thing that happened was when I got
Speaker 1: to Japan and I was living in this home state
Speaker 1: family and they took me out to their local sushi bar,
Speaker 1: and I realized what the whole experience was at that
Speaker 1: point that it was like this amazing, really fun social
Speaker 1: experience where you didn't order, you sat at the bar
Speaker 1: with a bunch of other people from the neighborhood, and
Speaker 1: the sushi chef was like this friendly neighborhood bartender and
Speaker 1: you just like started giving you these amazing things that
Speaker 1: you didn't know what they were, and you sort of
Speaker 1: explain a little bit about each one, and this kind
Speaker 1: of series of small surprises that occurred, as you said,
Speaker 1: at the sushi bar and interacted with the chef and everything,
Speaker 1: and what what troubled me was like when I would
Speaker 1: try to eat sushi back in the States after that,
Speaker 1: it was never the same, Like I was never having
Speaker 1: that experience that had made sushi so wonderful. So I
Speaker 1: like decided to make it my mission after this lobster book,
Speaker 1: you know, did so well, my publisher was like, well,
Speaker 1: can you do anything else on sea food because this
Speaker 1: was clearly resonating, and uh, it's like what about what
Speaker 1: about sushi? And that's how the Sushi book get started.
Speaker 1: And I tried to like try to educate American readers. Um,
Speaker 1: you know what the Japanese sushi experience is actually, like
Speaker 1: it's very very different, and the whole history of sushi
Speaker 1: and the experience is very different from from what we
Speaker 1: tend to think of in the US. Yeah, and we
Speaker 1: touch a little on that in this episode. But I've
Speaker 1: heard you talk about the fact that we what we
Speaker 1: consider as valuable in sushi has changed over the years.
Speaker 1: Can you talk a little bit about that. Yeah, this
Speaker 1: is so fascinating. And I didn't really realize this either
Speaker 1: until I started digging into the historical research. Um but
Speaker 1: if you ask any you know, like traditional Japanese sushi
Speaker 1: chef today, they'll tell you that like blue fin tuna
Speaker 1: is the pinnacle of of authentic Japanese sushi, especially the
Speaker 1: the belly cut to the toro, right, that's sort of
Speaker 1: melt in your mouth and station. The weird thing is,
Speaker 1: when I started looking into the history of this, the
Speaker 1: if you went back a hundred years um in early
Speaker 1: nineteen hundred, for example, sushi was very very different the
Speaker 1: traditional Japanese sushi that they were eating at that time.
Speaker 1: Tuna was considered a garbage fish. You would never eat tuna,
Speaker 1: possibly avoid it. It was it was considered like very
Speaker 1: low class and um, if you had to eat tuna,
Speaker 1: they would like they would marinated in soy sauce or
Speaker 1: buried in the ground, like do all these things to
Speaker 1: like try to get rid of the flavor of And
Speaker 1: at the time, what what actually was considered desirable sushi
Speaker 1: ingredients were um, smaller fish that had lighter flesh like
Speaker 1: the silvery or lighter flesh, fish that had more of
Speaker 1: a like kind of a crunchy text you're almost to eat.
Speaker 1: A lot of shellfish were considered very desirable. Flounder and
Speaker 1: sea bream were considered like the pinnacle of fine sushi,
Speaker 1: especially the kind of juwier parts of the flashood. It's
Speaker 1: completely different that the culinary values have completely changed over
Speaker 1: the past century, and has this changed the way you
Speaker 1: think about sushi when you're in a restaurant and ordering
Speaker 1: it for yourself. Yeah, I mean the thing is when
Speaker 1: you sit down at the sushi bar, a lot of
Speaker 1: chefs or you know, if we often we just order
Speaker 1: what we're used to. We order the usual um suspects,
Speaker 1: the tuna belly, the famine, the yellowtail, uh sweet feel.
Speaker 1: And what I learned in my research is that none
Speaker 1: of those is a traditional Japanese sushi ingredient. Uh. Those
Speaker 1: are all recent inventions. And trying to understand this, I
Speaker 1: realized that the blue thing tunam is it was an
Speaker 1: invention of the Japanese UM Airlines in the nineteen seventies.
Speaker 1: They were uh flying their planes full of Sony walkman's
Speaker 1: over to the US and flying them back empty, and
Speaker 1: they were trying to find something they could put in
Speaker 1: the planes on the way back, and they got the idea, well,
Speaker 1: maybe you know, there's some kind of like sea food
Speaker 1: in North America that people will eat, and and it
Speaker 1: turned out there wasn't Like they even looked into tuna,
Speaker 1: and no one would eat. No one ate tuna like
Speaker 1: maybe you'd open a can occasionally. But they were trying
Speaker 1: to get a tuna as possibly an ingredient they could
Speaker 1: fly back and sell in Japan, and no one was
Speaker 1: eating it. And everybody thought the idea was ludicrous. So
Speaker 1: it was in my my colleague Sasha Istenberg and journalists
Speaker 1: to kind of exposed this story. It was a cargo
Speaker 1: executive at Japan Airlines who who who like designed and
Speaker 1: built the cryogenic freezer containers and who developed the market
Speaker 1: that kind of turned blue con tuna into a global
Speaker 1: sushi ingredient that they started marketing and selling. And that's
Speaker 1: why we have it today, and that's why everybody believes
Speaker 1: that the traditional chapane sushi ingredim but it's not at all.
Speaker 1: And so once I realized this, I started asking this, well,
Speaker 1: what what would you have? You know, what's the more
Speaker 1: old fashioned other sushi ingredients besides tuna, And there's all
Speaker 1: these other things that they know how to prepare and
Speaker 1: serve that are so interesting to eat. So to answer
Speaker 1: your question, I just don't eat blue intuna anymore at all.
Speaker 1: In fact, I find my sushi eating experience has become
Speaker 1: much more interesting as a result, because there's all these
Speaker 1: other local um seasonal ingredients and smaller fish and shellfish
Speaker 1: and weird things that are just much more fun and interesting.
Speaker 1: And there's some ships who are starting to get back
Speaker 1: to that now and it's really cool to see happening.
Speaker 1: That's really that, that's really fascinating. You know, speaking of
Speaker 1: traditional sushi, could you tell us the story behind the
Speaker 1: California role and whether or not you can get them
Speaker 1: in Japan. Yeah, the California role we kind of assuming
Speaker 1: that it was. It was obviously because of the name
Speaker 1: it invented specifically to um, you know, Americans, interesting meeting sushi.
Speaker 1: That's sort of true. But the evolution of the California
Speaker 1: was what kind of happened over time. It wasn't immediate,
Speaker 1: and actually it started out as uh menu item for
Speaker 1: actually Japanese businessmen and stuff in Los Angeles, So it
Speaker 1: did originate in California, but it wasn't for American customers.
Speaker 1: The problem was at that time, just building off the
Speaker 1: tuna story, it was very hard to get batty tuna
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles in the um you know, or the
Speaker 1: seventies and eighties, when when sushi started to become more
Speaker 1: popular there. Uh and so one of the sushi restaurants
Speaker 1: in Little Tokyo and Los Angeles, because they didn't yet
Speaker 1: have the ability to kind of fly these tuna fish
Speaker 1: all over the world, they thought, well, how can we
Speaker 1: kind of recreate that batty um tuna belly sensation, and
Speaker 1: a realized that they California may not made a lot
Speaker 1: of petty tuna, but they had a ton of avocados,
Speaker 1: And so they started experimenting mixing avocado in with different
Speaker 1: kinds of fish to see if they could create the
Speaker 1: same sensation we would get when they ate petty tuna.
Speaker 1: But and tried uh, I think shrimp and a couple
Speaker 1: other things first, and finals finally somebody settled on crab
Speaker 1: meat and avocado as being the best sort of fox
Speaker 1: substitute for fortuna belly. So that was the original introduction
Speaker 1: of avocado into sushi um. But the real innovation that
Speaker 1: turned that created the California we roll we know today
Speaker 1: wasn't until someone invented what we what is called noticed
Speaker 1: the inside out roll. And this is the typical sushi
Speaker 1: role that we see in America all over the place today. Um,
Speaker 1: we don't even realize because it's so ubiquitous. But if
Speaker 1: the rice is on the outside of the role like
Speaker 1: a California role, that's actually not even at all part
Speaker 1: of Japan. The sushi tradition that was a really key
Speaker 1: American invention because apparently Americans at first found the idea
Speaker 1: of eating seaweed paper. Somehow it turn off and seaweed
Speaker 1: roles they were always made with the seaweed paper around
Speaker 1: the outside. And actually the whole point of it was
Speaker 1: that the seaweed paper, the nori was was wonderful to
Speaker 1: eat that way because it was crunchy. So you have
Speaker 1: this crunchy outside and the soft rights on the inside.
Speaker 1: But that was the whole point. But Americans wouldn't eat
Speaker 1: that because we were freaked out by seaweed paper, so
Speaker 1: they flipped it inside out with the seaweed on the
Speaker 1: inside where we couldn't see. It totally defeats the purpose
Speaker 1: because now the seaweeds all soggy and wet and not
Speaker 1: crunchy anymore. But it's got American team. So it was
Speaker 1: a combination of bringing avocado into the mix and then
Speaker 1: flipping the role inside out that ultimately resulted in the
Speaker 1: California role. Oh that's really interesting, and I'm curious has
Speaker 1: any of that American influence made its way back to
Speaker 1: Japan and the way they make sushi now, right? Yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 1: The other part of your question is that yes it has,
Speaker 1: and um, when when I was researching this in Los Angeles. Um,
Speaker 1: you'd have Japanese tourists coming over and getting all excited
Speaker 1: to order, you know, um, all the different weird American
Speaker 1: roles and Thanksgiving role and she steak role like so
Speaker 1: now it's it's been. It's been actually so intriguing to
Speaker 1: Japanese customers to have this American style sushi that it
Speaker 1: has now been re imported to Japan and you'll find
Speaker 1: all kinds of um, weird American style uh sushi roles
Speaker 1: being sold in Japan now too. And um, they tend
Speaker 1: to call it perhaps suplimistically creative sushi. It's like it's
Speaker 1: I can say, sushi is the creative sushi uh. And
Speaker 1: also weird kinds of sushi that we don't even have
Speaker 1: in the US, um, you know, like corn and hamburger sushi.
Speaker 1: And just like it's completely open season with all kinds
Speaker 1: of weird things. Now, well, this has been fascinating and
Speaker 1: I hope all of our listeners will check out your book,
Speaker 1: The Story of Sushi un Likely, Saga of raw Fish
Speaker 1: and Rice Trevor Course, And thanks so much for joining
Speaker 1: us on part time genius. Great to be with you.
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me. You're listening to part time genius,
Speaker 1: and we're talking about the surprising history and little known
Speaker 1: secrets that make up the sushi experience. Okay, Mango, So
Speaker 1: we've already covered sushi's ancient origins and how it was
Speaker 1: first brought to America during the nineteen fifties and sixties,
Speaker 1: So now we should talk about some of the differences
Speaker 1: between the sushi cultures of Japan and the US. Sure,
Speaker 1: so we mentioned before the break that many Americans view
Speaker 1: sushi eating as the solemn experience, like they're in some
Speaker 1: kind of food temple and are about to take part
Speaker 1: in a religious right or something. But what if I'm
Speaker 1: during my research is that most of it is in
Speaker 1: our heads and that people in Japan actually have this
Speaker 1: much more relaxed approach to the sushi. For example, we
Speaker 1: we have a lot of upscales sit down sushi restaurants
Speaker 1: in the US, and we ru's menus with I don't
Speaker 1: know twenty or thirty different roles and make our selections
Speaker 1: and then we just wait for the food to be
Speaker 1: brought to our tables. But in Japan, most sushi has
Speaker 1: just served at a bar and the menu choices changed
Speaker 1: based on what the chef has on hand. Well, so,
Speaker 1: so sushi choices are actually more limited in Japan. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't have guessed that. Yeah, So Japanese sushi bars don't
Speaker 1: share that American expectation of variety. Instead, they concentrate on
Speaker 1: keeping the quality super high for the few items they
Speaker 1: do have. And part of the reason for that difference
Speaker 1: is that the seafood in Japan is largely caught locally,
Speaker 1: so for certain kind of fishes and in season, then
Speaker 1: you won't find it on the menu. And compare that
Speaker 1: to the U s where I think it's eighty five
Speaker 1: percent of the seafood we has been imported, which means
Speaker 1: more species are available year round, but also that all
Speaker 1: the fish has been frozen at some point. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I think that quality is probably worth the trade off
Speaker 1: over the variety, agreed, which is why Japan doesn't have
Speaker 1: so many of those like catch all restaurants we find
Speaker 1: in the US. So a sushi bar in Japan only
Speaker 1: serves sushi, and if you want ramen or yaka tori,
Speaker 1: then you'll have to go someplace else. Yeah, and I
Speaker 1: can appreciate that that idea of that, Like we do
Speaker 1: one thing here and we do it right. But but
Speaker 1: let's talk a little bit about the atmosphere. Well, what's
Speaker 1: that like in a in a place like that in
Speaker 1: a sushi bar in Japan. Yeah, so again we have
Speaker 1: this idea of the stoic, silent sushi chef who's, you know,
Speaker 1: keenly focused on his work and won't interact with anyone
Speaker 1: and can't be disturbed. But sushi chefs can be reserved
Speaker 1: and they can be zen like at times. But the
Speaker 1: ones in Japan often are more like, uh, like your
Speaker 1: neighborhood bartender. So they're chatting with customers and making recommendations,
Speaker 1: and they're interacting in this way that's actually part of
Speaker 1: a sushi chef's training. So well, while there's a high
Speaker 1: level of respect for the craft, most sushi chefs are
Speaker 1: still totally approachable and friendly, which is nice to hear that.
Speaker 1: It makes me wonder where we got some of these ideas.
Speaker 1: I mean, did we just make up all this stuff
Speaker 1: about sushi chefs being like deadly serious or how did
Speaker 1: this come to be? Yeah? I mean I think part
Speaker 1: of its things outsization, and part of it's like a
Speaker 1: language barrier, right, people are behind the bar and and
Speaker 1: aren't comfortable with English. I worked at a sushi restaurant
Speaker 1: for a little bit, and the chefs there were big
Speaker 1: sports fans, and so the only way they communicate with
Speaker 1: me was with uh sports words. So they say things
Speaker 1: like if they dropped something, they say fumble, or if
Speaker 1: they need me, they'd call a time out. That's pretty great,
Speaker 1: but you know, the language barrier must make it pretty
Speaker 1: rough in a lot of cases. And that makes sense.
Speaker 1: And you know, it also seems true that Americans aren't
Speaker 1: too hung up on maintaining these Japanese sushi traditions. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you need proof of our lack of reverence, look
Speaker 1: no further than the sushi burrito, Yeah, or m the
Speaker 1: sushi croissant, the sushi cheeseburger, dessert, sushi, deep fried sushi roll.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'd tried deep fried sushi roll. I'll be
Speaker 1: honest with you on that. In the list of sushi
Speaker 1: on and on and yeah, I guess they are technically
Speaker 1: combinations of sushi and other popular foods in the US,
Speaker 1: but I don't know. I'm thinking the more fitting word
Speaker 1: is probably abominations. And that's certainly what the Japanese Ministry
Speaker 1: of Agriculture was say, and and the department has been
Speaker 1: not pleased at all to see these ridiculous places that
Speaker 1: we've taken Japan's beloved cuisine too, and so much so
Speaker 1: that they recently launched a new program that will actually
Speaker 1: certify whether Japanese restaurants outside the country are staying true
Speaker 1: to the values of traditional Japanese cooking. I mean, they're
Speaker 1: gonna have their work cut out for them. Oh no kidding.
Speaker 1: I mean I was actually looking at this one article
Speaker 1: and according to NPR, there over eighty nine thousand Japanese
Speaker 1: restaurants outside of Japan, and about twenty two thousand of
Speaker 1: those are right here in the US. So this new
Speaker 1: program is going to review all these places, and and
Speaker 1: what like, are they gonna find these Japanese restaurants or
Speaker 1: shut them down? I mean, you know, it's not like
Speaker 1: they have this international authority. So the program is completely voluntary,
Speaker 1: and the certification is basically this badge of honor for
Speaker 1: authentic Japanese restaurants, So it shows customers that this is
Speaker 1: a place to experience traditional cuisine and not these cultural
Speaker 1: mash ups like sushi burritos, and is one sushi chef
Speaker 1: put it. Don't get me wrong. The sushi burrito is
Speaker 1: a cool concept, and I wouldn't tell anyone not to
Speaker 1: eat it, but I wouldn't say it's Japanese food. I
Speaker 1: mean that that's strong a line there. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: like kim chi tacos are great, but spaghetti tacos aren't exactly.
Speaker 1: But while we're on the subject of different sushi experiences,
Speaker 1: do you know that Japanese people are actually better at
Speaker 1: eating seaweed than we are. I mean, they definitely have
Speaker 1: more experience. What don't mean they're better at it? Trash
Speaker 1: talking this. There was the study publish in Nature and
Speaker 1: and uh. It featured the work of these scientists who
Speaker 1: were studying this marine bacteria that breaks down norri. It's
Speaker 1: really good at breaking it down. And that's the kind
Speaker 1: of seaweed that's most commonly found in sushi. And apparently
Speaker 1: the enzymes that cause this decay are also produced by
Speaker 1: bacteria that live inside some humans guts. So wait, so
Speaker 1: they only live in Japanese guts or what? Yeah, that's right,
Speaker 1: or at least they haven't been found in the guts
Speaker 1: of North Americans. So you know, we have trillions of
Speaker 1: bacteria living in our intestines, and they account for hundreds
Speaker 1: of different species. But North Americans lack the one that
Speaker 1: produces this seaweed eating enzyme. That's pretty crazy. So do
Speaker 1: we know why that is? We're not sure, but there
Speaker 1: are a few theories. So the main one is that
Speaker 1: Japanese people, you know, a long time ago, swallowed this
Speaker 1: enzyme along with some seaweed a while ago, and from
Speaker 1: there the enzyme genes were transferred to the microbes living
Speaker 1: in the person's gut and then handed down through the
Speaker 1: family bloodline, and the genes might have been phased out
Speaker 1: at some point along the way, except that Japanese people
Speaker 1: kept eating seaweed heavy diets. So why I get rid
Speaker 1: of something that aids in digestion. That's pretty amazing. You know.
Speaker 1: I'm actually glad you brought this up because we've talked
Speaker 1: a bit about history, We've talked a little bit about culture,
Speaker 1: so I feel like we should take some time down
Speaker 1: and check out more of the surprising science behind sushi
Speaker 1: because there's some really interesting stuff there. Definitely, but let's
Speaker 1: take a quick break first. Okay, Well, so let's get
Speaker 1: scientific wish sushi component do you want to look at first? Well,
Speaker 1: We've mentioned a few times now that mixing with savy
Speaker 1: with soy sauce is a bad idea, so I kind
Speaker 1: of want to break down why that is. But first
Speaker 1: let's be clear about what was sabi is and what
Speaker 1: it isn't. Because you know the spicy green lumps that
Speaker 1: are served in American restaurants, the one that mentioned my
Speaker 1: father in law eating, and you know, prepackaged in these
Speaker 1: sushi trays, that's actually not was sabi. So real was
Speaker 1: sabi is made from the grated stems of a plant
Speaker 1: that's native to Japan, which means getting your hands on
Speaker 1: it outside the country can actually be really expensive. So
Speaker 1: I'd heard this, but I don't know the specifics. So
Speaker 1: what's the stuff we've been eating. Well, most of the
Speaker 1: wasabi here in the States, it's made from horse radish
Speaker 1: and mustard powder plus a little food coloring to give
Speaker 1: it that healthy green glow. And if you aren't being
Speaker 1: charged separately for wasabi, it's most likely fake. That's interesting.
Speaker 1: But aside from like the cred in the kitchen, is
Speaker 1: there any advantage to using real with sabi? Well, it
Speaker 1: depends on who you ask, but real was sabia is
Speaker 1: said to have a more herbal taste than the fake
Speaker 1: stuff that we're used to eating. And and because authentic
Speaker 1: was sabi loses much of its flavor after only fifteen
Speaker 1: minutes from being grated, the the sushi chef generally prepare
Speaker 1: a new batch for every single order, so you know,
Speaker 1: the real stuff has a much more fresh taste as well.
Speaker 1: That's crazy it loses its flavor so quickly. But I'm
Speaker 1: guessing neither kind should go in your soy sauce. No,
Speaker 1: definitely not, so I hope you hear that, Tristan. But
Speaker 1: you know, the reason really has more to do with
Speaker 1: science than etiquette. So that pungent burning sensation that was
Speaker 1: sabi causes in our nasal passages, that that's due to
Speaker 1: a volatile chemical that it contains. Now, this chemical is
Speaker 1: similar to mustard oil, so it actually turns up in
Speaker 1: both real and fake was saby. And because with sabi's
Speaker 1: heat comes from a chemical rather than an oil based
Speaker 1: heat like chili peppers, for example, you know that that
Speaker 1: burning sensation can be counteracted by food or water. So
Speaker 1: if you think about it, when people mix with sabi
Speaker 1: with water based soy sauce, they're really neutralizing that heat
Speaker 1: and and killing most of that natural flavor in the process. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's really self defeating stuff. It actually reminds me of
Speaker 1: something I read that when sushi chef's notice people adding
Speaker 1: a ton of with sabi to their sushi, they immediately
Speaker 1: switched to less desirable cuts of fish, you know, the
Speaker 1: stuff the kitchen needs to unload. And the thining is
Speaker 1: why waste all this premium fish on folks who are
Speaker 1: only gonna drown it with savvy anyway? Yeah, that's you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's a good point. And I mean, obviously, the
Speaker 1: big draw of sushi is the phenomenal taste of the fish,
Speaker 1: so you don't want to bury that in condiments and
Speaker 1: and spoil the whole effect. And by the way, have
Speaker 1: you ever stopped to think about how weird it is
Speaker 1: that we love the taste of raw fish so much.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's like raw chicken, raw pork. We don't
Speaker 1: want any part of it, and obviously for good reasons helped,
Speaker 1: but raw fish, I mean, it feels like people are
Speaker 1: just obsessed with it. Yes, I was curious about that too,
Speaker 1: and I ended up checking out the work of this biophysicist.
Speaker 1: His name's Old morrits, and so, according to him, the
Speaker 1: addicting taste of raw fish is actually thanks to gravity. Yeah,
Speaker 1: in the ocean, gravity's effect is so weak due to
Speaker 1: the buoyancy of water that most fish basically float weight
Speaker 1: sleep for their whole lives. And the result is this
Speaker 1: laid back lifestyle that the fish muscles are much softer
Speaker 1: and smoother than the you know, the thick ropey muscle
Speaker 1: fibers that terrestrial animals have, and and typically the more
Speaker 1: work a muscle does, the tougher it grows. So I
Speaker 1: guess while fish are floating around without a care in
Speaker 1: the world, those of us on landers that were waging
Speaker 1: this constant war against gravity just to stay upright, I
Speaker 1: guess I didn't hadn't thought about it that way exactly.
Speaker 1: And that's why the fatty belly of the tuna is
Speaker 1: such a prize cut for sushi lovers. It gets the
Speaker 1: least used, so it's always the softest, tastiest part of
Speaker 1: the fish. But you know, if you think about the
Speaker 1: muscle qualities of fish, they actually explain more than why
Speaker 1: sushi tastes delicious. They also account for why sushi looks delicious.
Speaker 1: And this was just fascinating to read up on. So,
Speaker 1: the rainbow colors of the fish used in sushi are
Speaker 1: mostly due to the amount of oxygen in their muscles.
Speaker 1: So when a more active fish, say like a tuna,
Speaker 1: you've got a protein called myoglobin that carries oxygen to
Speaker 1: the muscles so they can make it into energy. But
Speaker 1: my globin also contains iron, which happens to take on
Speaker 1: that deep red color that you see in the fish.
Speaker 1: That's pretty cool. But what about something like a flounder
Speaker 1: though when I see those in restaurants there like, it
Speaker 1: often looks more white when used in sushi. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: that pearl white color and a fish, it indicates that
Speaker 1: there were maybe more sedentary and that its muscles didn't
Speaker 1: need that steady stream of oxygen in order to make energy.
Speaker 1: So there are also lots of fish that have a
Speaker 1: combination of muscles that are oxygen dependent and ones that aren't,
Speaker 1: And as you might expect from those, those are fish
Speaker 1: that wind up looking, you know, maybe a little more pink. So,
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess that explains why salmon have that
Speaker 1: pinkish orangish color. Well, good guess, I know you're trying
Speaker 1: to be smart on that, but it did not exactly.
Speaker 1: There are actually two things going on with salmon, and
Speaker 1: that that's depending on whether they're wild or farm raised.
Speaker 1: So in the wild, that trademark orange hue is derived
Speaker 1: from the fish's diet, not its muscles. So salmon are
Speaker 1: eating a lot of shrimp, a lot of krill, and
Speaker 1: and these are are shellfish that contain a certain pigment
Speaker 1: that's actually similar to the one in carrots that give
Speaker 1: carrots that orange color. Well, well, what about raised SALMONA well,
Speaker 1: believe it or not, those salmon are actually artificially colored.
Speaker 1: And so salmon raised and captivity maybe they don't have
Speaker 1: the luxury of eating shrimp dinners. So so the fish
Speaker 1: farmers are actually adding a pigment in order to give
Speaker 1: them that salmon color that you see. And it's it's
Speaker 1: not something that the farmers are actually all that excited
Speaker 1: to do, not just because they you know, they don't
Speaker 1: want to be adding something artificial, but also because it's
Speaker 1: expensive to do. I mean that they say that it
Speaker 1: costs as much as of their feed bill to add
Speaker 1: this pigment. That's crazy. But the public expects to see
Speaker 1: this rosy, pink and orange salmon and studies show that
Speaker 1: this is true. I mean that they're willing to pay
Speaker 1: more for it. So, according to this market research that
Speaker 1: I was looking at, American consumers will pay as much
Speaker 1: as a dollar per pound more for that darker colored
Speaker 1: salmon that you see out there. I know I feel
Speaker 1: the same way like when I see eggs. I know,
Speaker 1: brown eggs aren't better for you than white eggs, but
Speaker 1: I still like the field and more. But obviously that's
Speaker 1: a lot of money to leave on the table or
Speaker 1: something as trivial as color. That's true. But no matter
Speaker 1: what you think about dying fish pink, these newer methods
Speaker 1: are definitely a whole lot better than the old industry standard.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've read about this before, but
Speaker 1: they used to slice the fish open and then gas
Speaker 1: it with carbon monoxide in order to change It's like,
Speaker 1: I swear, that is a real thing. It's gross. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I take the pigment compounds over then. I kidding.
Speaker 1: But we've given fishing to do so I want to
Speaker 1: circle back to the science of sushi's other star, and
Speaker 1: that's the rice, because it's really as important as fresh
Speaker 1: quality fishes. It's the rice that makes or breaks a
Speaker 1: piece of sushi. And that's why sushi chefs are is
Speaker 1: so meticulous about which rice they use and how they
Speaker 1: cook it. All. Right, so what makes for good sushi rice? Well,
Speaker 1: most Japanese sushi chefs have they their own go to grains,
Speaker 1: which are sometimes the ones grown in their own hometowns.
Speaker 1: But the real secret sushi rice is to find a
Speaker 1: short grain rice that can absorb a lot of water
Speaker 1: without cracking. And you have to see the the rice
Speaker 1: takes in water as it cooks, but if the grains
Speaker 1: absorbed too much, they'll actually burst open. And so what
Speaker 1: does that That like throws off the texture or something? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right, but it's not the cracks themselves that are
Speaker 1: the problem. The real issue is that every grain of
Speaker 1: rice contains a bit of starch inside, so when it
Speaker 1: cracks during the cooking, the starch can leak out and
Speaker 1: that turns your rice into a mushy, sticky mess. And
Speaker 1: with sushi, you you definitely want to feel the texture
Speaker 1: of each grain as well as the air between them.
Speaker 1: So to sidestuff that problem, a good sushi chef will
Speaker 1: actually south their grains ahead of time and check for
Speaker 1: cracks before using each piece of rice. I feel like
Speaker 1: sometimes I'm not tasting the right way because I can't
Speaker 1: say I've ever felt like I was tasting each grain
Speaker 1: of rice and the air and between the grains of rice. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean that portable shrine analogy makes a lot more say, yes,
Speaker 1: I get it, I understand it now, But I mean, actually,
Speaker 1: think about all this. It is amazing to see how
Speaker 1: much thought and care goes into crafting even you know,
Speaker 1: like a single piece of sushi. And I know the
Speaker 1: rigor of preparing or even consuming sushi. It it can feel,
Speaker 1: you know, daunting or uninviting to someone who just wants
Speaker 1: to grab a bite to eat. But I do hope
Speaker 1: we've shown today that there's a real elegance and a
Speaker 1: logic to each in every sushi custom. And the end
Speaker 1: goal isn't to make you feel frustrated or uncultured, but
Speaker 1: really to give you one of the best food experiences
Speaker 1: that you could have. Yeah, and and speaking of elegance
Speaker 1: and logic, we should probably get started on one of
Speaker 1: our own customs, unless, of course, you're threatened by its rigor.
Speaker 1: If you're talking about the fact off mango, I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure I can handle it. I'm even willing to go
Speaker 1: first here. I've got a good one here. So it
Speaker 1: says if you want to go to the oldest and
Speaker 1: biggest fish market in the world, you'll head to Sukiji
Speaker 1: Fish Market in Tokyo. Now, one of the coolest things
Speaker 1: I saw about this. This is their big tuna auction
Speaker 1: that happens regularly and the sushi stets go there to
Speaker 1: bid on bluefin. The auction starts at three in the mornings.
Speaker 1: You'll need to get there little bit after midnight to
Speaker 1: guarantee a seed, and then you can watch sushi chefs
Speaker 1: pay some seriously big bucks. I was looking at the
Speaker 1: numbers on this and the most ever paid for a
Speaker 1: blue fin at auction there was one point eight million
Speaker 1: dollars for a single four eighty nine pound fish. Is
Speaker 1: that not the same I've never paid that much for
Speaker 1: a fish. I haven't even been to a fish auction.
Speaker 1: But it's being a blue fin. It might be a
Speaker 1: hot ticket item now, but fisherman actually used to avoid it,
Speaker 1: and that's because it's a really strong fish and it
Speaker 1: would tear up the fishing nets. But this all changed
Speaker 1: in the fifties because nylon nets came along and it
Speaker 1: became an easier to catch. But you know, sadly that's
Speaker 1: resulted in over fishing. Yeah, and that's definitely a very
Speaker 1: big problem. All right. Now, we talked earlier about the
Speaker 1: Tokyo restaurant suki Yobashi Jiro that was made famous by
Speaker 1: the documentary Zero Dreams of Sushi, and it's often cited
Speaker 1: as the best sushi restaurant in the world. So I
Speaker 1: was looking at how you could possibly get reservations, and
Speaker 1: it's definitely not easy. First of all, you can only
Speaker 1: call on the very first day of the month. In
Speaker 1: order to make reservations. You've got to be prepared to
Speaker 1: speak Japanese and leave a Japanese phone number behind just
Speaker 1: so you can hope to score a reservation. So do
Speaker 1: all those things, and it's a possibility. But you know, interestingly,
Speaker 1: there's no menu at the restaurant. It's just a twenty
Speaker 1: course meal made up of whatever Gero's in the mood
Speaker 1: to serve that day. And it's actually surprisingly quick meal.
Speaker 1: They expect that each piece of sushi is going to
Speaker 1: be eaten as soon as it's presented, so so really
Speaker 1: it can take only like thirty minutes or so to
Speaker 1: eat this three hundred dollar meal. That's amazing. Do you
Speaker 1: know that there was a two thousand seventeen study that
Speaker 1: showed that nearly half of all the fish from well
Speaker 1: respected sushi places in l A were mislabeled. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: the study actually looked at more than three fifty samples
Speaker 1: of ten fish and this was across twenty six really
Speaker 1: good restaurants, and what they found was that sent were fake.
Speaker 1: Yeah most of the time fish like red snapper or
Speaker 1: yellow fin, we're actually a fish like flounder. Wow. Alright. Well,
Speaker 1: last year Seamless that the data on sushi orders across
Speaker 1: several major cities around the country, and it was kind
Speaker 1: of interesting to see that, you know, certain types of
Speaker 1: sushi are much more popular in certain cities than others.
Speaker 1: I was taking a look at this. In Boston, it's
Speaker 1: eight times more likely that people order spicy tuner rolls
Speaker 1: than in other markets. Now, if you want a crunchy,
Speaker 1: spicy tuner roll, then you need to head to Denver
Speaker 1: if you want to be in what the popular pack there.
Speaker 1: In Miami there's seven times more likely to go for
Speaker 1: a salmon temporal role than in other cities. Of course,
Speaker 1: in Philly, which I know you're close to a deep
Speaker 1: fried tuna and salmon is the popular one there. And
Speaker 1: then in DC, the spicy crunch shrimp roll is thirty
Speaker 1: five times more likely to be ordered there than in
Speaker 1: other markets. Why do they like that one so much?
Speaker 1: Times So, it seems like when we talk about sushi
Speaker 1: or other really fresh foods, people often talk about freezing
Speaker 1: those foods is a terrible thing. But this is something
Speaker 1: I learned in our research. Did you know that FDA
Speaker 1: regulations mandate that raw fish has to be frozen for
Speaker 1: a specified period of time to work can be served.
Speaker 1: I mean it's to kill parasites, and it applies no
Speaker 1: matter how fresh the fish maybe. And in Japan, the
Speaker 1: real sushi masters know how to look for parasites or
Speaker 1: other problems with the fish so they can still serve
Speaker 1: the fish without freezing it. So every piece of fish
Speaker 1: that we eat in a restaurant here in the States,
Speaker 1: sushi or not, has to be frozen at some point before. Wow,
Speaker 1: I didn't know that. Actually this means that sushi is
Speaker 1: pretty much just like all those frozen fish sticks I
Speaker 1: used to eat as a kid, and that makes me
Speaker 1: really happy. So I think for that I'm going to
Speaker 1: give you today's fact Off trophy. Congratulations Mango. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much, and if we forgot any great sushi facts,
Speaker 1: please don't hesitate to let us know. You can always
Speaker 1: email us where at part Time Genius at how stuff
Speaker 1: Works dot com, or you can call us on seven
Speaker 1: fact Hotline that's one eight four four pt Genius, or
Speaker 1: you can find us on Facebook or Twitter. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for listening, round, Thanks again for listening. Part
Speaker 1: Time Genius is a production of How Stuff Works and
Speaker 1: wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who do the
Speaker 1: important things we couldn't even begin to understand. Tristan McNeil
Speaker 1: does the editing thing. Noel Brown made the theme song
Speaker 1: and does the MIXI MIXI sound thing. Jerry Rowland does
Speaker 1: the exact producer thing. Gave Bluesier is our lead researcher,
Speaker 1: with support from the research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan
Speaker 1: Brown and Lucas Adams and Eve. Jeff Cook gets the
Speaker 1: show to your ears. Good job, Eves. If you like
Speaker 1: what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe, and if you
Speaker 1: really really like what you've heard, maybe you could leave
Speaker 1: a good review for us do we forget Jason? Jason
Speaker 1: who