December 2009
15 posts
1 tag
Merry Christmas, from Karen and Daisy
Karen: So what’s this big news, then?
Daisy: We’ve been given our parts in the nativity play. And I’m the lobster.
Karen: The lobster?
Daisy: Yeah!
Karen: In the nativity play?
Daisy: Yeah, first lobster.
Karen: There was more than one lobster present at the birth of Jesus?
Daisy: Duh.
—Love Actually
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Lobster in Blue
This was the lonely last soul in the tank at a seafood restaurant at the South Street Seaport in New York City on Sunday. I’m all for eating lobster, but this fellow (or lady) pulls even my heart strings.
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Wild Vermont Lobster
Ran across Les Hook and Nova Kim from the “northeast Kingdom of Vermont” at the New Amsterdam Market in New York yesterday. I did a double-take when I saw the packages marked “Wild Vermont Lobster.” Ain’t no ocean there, folks.
Of course, what they were selling was “lobster” mushrooms, harvested by hand and dried. Does anyone know if these things...
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The Ultimate in Sustainable Sushi Might Just Be...
In The Story of Sushi I write about one of the first female sushi chefs to graduate from the California Sushi Academy—Tracy Griffith, actress, singer, and half-sister of Melanie Griffith. Here’s the beginning of the section about Tracy in the book:
A feisty redhead, Tracy had gotten to the point in her film career where she no longer wanted to wear the things the directors wanted her...
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“The world needs fantasy, not reality. We have enough reality today.”
– Fashion designer Alexander McQueen, commenting in the New York Times Magazine on his ‘lobster claw stiletto booties’
The magazine reports:
During Paris fashion week in October, Alexander McQueen sent down the runway lobster-claw ankle booties that were the highest, and probably the...
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How Fish Cheese Can Solve Our Carp Problem
The New York Times reports that Asian carp — “a mammoth, voracious, non-native conqueror among fish” — are invading and conquering the Mississippi river system and now the Great Lakes.
Funny, just like how sushi conquered the Midwest.
So I have a solution. Make all the dang invading carp into sushi. Freshwater carp sushi is the original form of sushi in Japan. You can...
3 tags
Bluefin Tuna: Tigers of the Sea
This a slide from the A/V presentation that I show with my lectures. I tell the audience a bit about the amazing bluefin tuna, and then explain what is happening with the overfishing of this majestic beast, and then I ask, “Would you eat a tiger burger?”
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Lobster Is So Cheap That ...
Not sure how I feel about this lobster grilled-cheese sandwich. The poor lobster’s fortunes seem to be falling awfully fast. What say you?
Lobster meat’s financial status has been tumbling for some time now; if you’re curious why, I unraveled some of the mystery of cheap lobster prices a while back on The Atlantic. It’s a surprising story, involving our good friend, the...
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“Strange, but riveting read for a vegetarian: Trevor Corson’s The Story of...”
– Astrid Johnson, “Mancunian of German origin. In love, vegetarian chef, graphic designer, poet.”
As a vegetarian, maybe Astrid is partly riveted by the blood and guts of fish butchery that I describe in no-holds-barred detail in the book, which is not a side of sushi that most people...
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Oyster farming can actually clean Chesapeake Bay →
Drastic changes proposed for Maryland’s oyster industry:
The three-pronged proposal includes plans to increase Maryland’s network of oyster sanctuaries, expand areas available for aquaculture and private leasing of oyster harvesting, and protect current fisheries from leasing.
Because oysters naturally filter pollutants out of the water, a larger population might also mean a cleaner...
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WatchThe primary interest of this video seems to be that there’s a guy not just in a lobster suit, but in a lobster suit that is then also in top hat & tails.
Reminds me of the lobster I describe in The Secret Life of Lobsters that my friend dressed up in a Barbie-doll outfit.
Via NikkiTheFoodie
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Time for a gravadlax revival? →
This is also how sushi got its start in Asia, as a buried-fish preservation technique:
The word Gravadlax (actually two words, gravad and lax) translates as buried salmon. Back in the mists of time, the fish were buried with salt to preserve them and the hidey-hole marked and covered with rocks to keep out wolves.
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“Mr. Corson’s writing style reminds me of underwear with sagging elastic.”
– If there weren’t so many wonderfully positive reader reviews of The Story of Sushi on Amazon, I might take this latest comment personally, but as it is, it cracks me the hell up.
As a very well-read friend of mine recently wrote to me:
You’re not a big showy “look at me”...
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U.S. Bowling Congress endorses sushi over french... →
Ironic. In my book The Story of Sushi, one of the characters I interviewed talks about how when he was a kid growing up, his Japanese father’s favorite sushi bar was in a Japanese-American bowling alley in L.A. He laments how that place disappeared.
Only for bowling-alley sushi to make a resurgence, it now seems, in middle America.
Sushi really has become an American meal.
via Sushi...
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Continental airlines to serve airborne sushi →
The new BusinessFirst menus enhance Continental’s five-course gourmet meal which is presented restaurant-style, complete with linen, fine china and flatware. Local touches are offered in various markets, including sushi appetizers and a complete Japanese meal option on Tokyo flights.
Yuck! Thanks, but I’ll stick to eating it on the ground.
Via Sushi Lush.