Sushi topic from Paris

The French magazine "Figaro" featured an article about the sushi boom in Paris. Here is their English translated page. (Ah French to English seems much better than Japanese to English) It seems Parisians have been enjoying a sushi boom and the number of sushi restaurants has doubled in last four years. 600 sushi restaurants in Paris!? Amazing. But Francois Simon of Figaro says 40% of the restaurants have problems with food hygiene, and many of the restaurants don't have a Japanese sushi chef. Since it is not so hard to open a restaurant in Paris, there are many restaurants, which serve "mocko sushi" or "looks like sushi food". They say such sushi is made on a rough cutting surface. Hmm The cutting surface is strongly related to the taste. Rough-cut sushi will smell like fish! :-)

I did not know this; in Japan a chef usually spends four years in very basic training, like how to make green tea, how to make sour garlic. etc,. Then for the next two years they learn how to cook sushi. In all it's a total of 7 years they will have spent to become a sushi chef. This is live camera of a real sushi counter in Japan. 　If you catch a good timing, you may see how quickly he prepares the sushi. You know, sushi is not just a sour small ball of rice with raw fish :-), it requires a special technique for preparation. Actually we Japanese cook Chirashi or Inari, Temaki, but we do not make Nigiri at home, (check this out post too.) because we know that the taste between handmade and cook made is so different.

Food doesn't have borders. Like I致e always said, and it will be nice to have special sushi version your country. Even though Italian people will say "unbelievable!", Japanese eat Japanese basil Natto spaghetti with a fork and spoon. he he he. This Sun Jose sushi is "lacking in delicacy" [sorry to say like that <(_ _)> ] it made me grin wryly though, but it is still very nice, that they like sushi so much! This is a flash that caused my American friend to laugh really hard; they show sushi as an American food. Good joke!

Basically if some food goes with sour rice (=sushi meshi), you may use it to create your original sushi. Actually many Japanese like to eat California rolls which were first made in the U.S. Hmm how about kidney stuffed Gunkan_maki (Gunkan means warship, since its black appearance looks like this, we call this Gunkan) as the UK version? Slightly grilled foie gras or roast canard Nigiri can be a French original? Turkey, Greece and other such Mediterranean countries eat a lot of fish; they will have many good dishes to modify as sushi. I think Turkey's hummus would be a good compliment to sour rice. What do you think?

Comments

[nyupyuki]

何人が寿司作ろうとかまわないけどきちんとした組織作るべきだよね～
で、例えば全米（or全仏）寿司協会なんかの認証シールを店のドアに貼って目印とするとか。

[Martin]

Hummus is great, I really miss it... Why noone has introduced it in Tokyo? What a scandal!

At Japan Offspring Fund, we investigated suhi bars, and found some food safety problems.

http://tabemono.info/english/news/news193.html#2

Japan has introduced many novel ideas to the World’s food culture, including sushi and sashimi. These fresh, raw pieces of fish are enjoyed with soy sauce and some horseradish. Sushi, where the fish is placed on top of rice, has become especially well-known outside of Japan. In this issue we take a close look at the safety problems related to farmed salmon.

The most important advice is to avoid the farmed salmon. The reason sushi bars prefer farmed salmon is that they do not contain a certain parasite, which thrives on natural salmon. Also, farmed salmon is generally cheaper than when salmon is caught wild in rivers or in the ocean. But salmon often contain toxins such as PCBs.

The problem is the feed. The fish feed contains low levels of PCBs that accumulate in the fat of salmon. Fish fat is generally to be recommended as very healthy, but not when it comes from farmed salmon. In Japan, salmon sold in supermarkets and fish shops has to be clearly labeled to give the consumer a choice between farmed and wild salmon. In the sushi bar, however, you do not get such labels.

[Martin]

Hummus is great, I really miss it... Why noone has introduced it in Tokyo? What a scandal!

At Japan Offspring Fund, we investigated suhi bars, and found some food safety problems.

http://tabemono.info/english/news/news193.html#2

Japan has introduced many novel ideas to the World’s food culture, including sushi and sashimi. These fresh, raw pieces of fish are enjoyed with soy sauce and some horseradish. Sushi, where the fish is placed on top of rice, has become especially well-known outside of Japan. In this issue we take a close look at the safety problems related to farmed salmon.

The most important advice is to avoid the farmed salmon. The reason sushi bars prefer farmed salmon is that they do not contain a certain parasite, which thrives on natural salmon. Also, farmed salmon is generally cheaper than when salmon is caught wild in rivers or in the ocean. But salmon often contain toxins such as PCBs.

The problem is the feed. The fish feed contains low levels of PCBs that accumulate in the fat of salmon. Fish fat is generally to be recommended as very healthy, but not when it comes from farmed salmon. In Japan, salmon sold in supermarkets and fish shops has to be clearly labeled to give the consumer a choice between farmed and wild salmon. In the sushi bar, however, you do not get such labels.

[Mari]

Hi there, clean and hygiene issue is basic duty for restaurant. I don't choose durty restaurant at any rate, even though food is delicious. They don't care custmer, they are not sensitive for custmer's feeling. it means they don't have delicacy. I don't need such foods.

[sebastien]

one of the reason behind this boom is a TV documentary that aired last year if i remember well, it was about asian restaurants in France (especially vietnamese wich were very popular), the documentary focused on food hygiene and it was absolutly horrific... the impact of this documentary on the public was really huge and many vietnamese restaurants decided to convert their business in Japane restaurants because nobody would go in a "chinese"(as people use to say) restaurant anymore.. this explaisn why so many so called japanese restaurants don't have a single real japanese employe. Fortunatly it is still possible to find real japanese food made by japanese people !!

[Gwen]

Hmm ... I choose my sushi restaurant based on the chef's training. I would only visit if they have sushi counter, and see the condition of the ingredients, and how the sushi is made and presented by the chef. Since I worked in an authentic Japanese restaurant before, I can usually tell if they are good or bad.

One of my favorite place in the USA was a sushi restaurant run by a guy from Laos! He was very good in presentation and freshness of product. I think that all sushi chef should choose their raw materials themselves, don't you think so? :)

[David]

We too have lots of Sushi restaurants in Auckland but a survey conducted last week raised many concerns about hygene, I would have to say that I would only visit a Japanese sushi restaurant

[AzianBrewer]

I am not an expert of sushi. However, I am relatively careful with where I go for my sushi. Places run by Chinese and Korean are definitely off my list. Not saying that they are making bad sushi but it is just my preference.

[chris]

one of the funny things i've noticed here in the northern virginia/washington dc area is that many of the sushi restaurants seem to have korean sushi chefs. but that's only a casual observation on my part.

chris