May 2011
1 post
1 tag
What Is the Most Difficult Sushi to Eat?
I was recently asked this question by a visitor to my site. Personally, I might have to go with the futomaki, which translates literally as “fat roll.”
Most of the oversized sushi rolls that we eat in America were invented right here in the States. Typically, traditional Japanese sushi is made small. But the futomaki is an exception. It’s usually overstuffed with a surprising...
March 2011
4 posts
1 tag
Sushi Can Survive, and Thrive
By Trevor Corson
With the ongoing tragedy in Japan, people have been asking me if sushi is safe to eat, and indeed, whether the future of sushi as a cuisine might be in jeopardy. Let me first say that the situation in Japan is heartbreaking, and I have many close friends there who I’ve been in contact with and whose safety I’m concerned about. The question of sushi’s future...
1 tag
"One of the Great New York Nights"
By Trevor Corson
Just wrapped up an amazing guided dinner for six at the sushi bar, and the chef and I received a phenomenal compliment from a British gentleman who was part of the group. “In my 20-plus years here,” he said, “this has been one of the great New York nights.”
1 tag
Sushi Like Jazz
By Trevor Corson
Last night’s Sushi Concierge dinner in D.C. featured a cut-open nigiri of salt-cured king prawn, under which, between the prawn and the rice, the chef had tucked a dab of the prawn’s own tomalley, augmented with white miso. I love opening people’s eyes to the imagination and technique that a good sushi chef is capable of bringing to the cuisine—if we know how...
1 tag
Skeptic's Birthday
By Trevor Corson
When retired New York City businessman Jack Shaifer sat down at the sushi bar with me last night to celebrate his 70th birthday with his family, he was not impressed.
“I was skeptical,” he later admitted. “What could this guy teach me about sushi that I didn’t already know?” Jack’s daughter-in-law, who’d arranged the dinner, was holding...
June 2010
3 posts
2 tags
Help Save the Endangered Bluefin
By Trevor Corson
Discover the delights of an old-fashioned, traditional Japanese sushi menu that prizes the more authentic sushi fish—and skips the endangered tunas pushed by the globalized, industrial fishing and restaurant industries—by attending one of my Sushi Concierge dinners. Bluefin tuna and the risks faced by this majestic fish from overfishing were the subject of a recent...
Behind the Scenes at Jewel Bako
By Trevor Corson
I recently spent a few hours behind the scenes with the sushi chefs at the Michelin-starred Jewel Bako restaurant in Manhattan’s East Village, where I host my Sushi Concierge dinner lectures, watching them prepare during a busy morning and afternoon. Here, Chef Yuzo trims fillets of a variety of small, traditional sushi fish. If you’re curious what else goes on behind the...
1 tag
Last Supper
By Trevor Corson
Undergoing an organ transplant can change everything; for one young man I met last year, the consequences of his upcoming lung transplant would include a restriction against eating raw fish for the rest of his life. With that in mind, his friends organized a Sushi Concierge dinner for him last fall, and I had the singular honor of presiding over his “last supper” of...
May 2010
1 post
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"Gastro Chic" Reviews New York Dinner Event
By Trevor Corson
The blogger Gastro Chic showed up to attend one of my recent “Sushi Concierge” dinner lectures and has just posted a lovely, detailed review of the evening. She writes:
Before you sharpen those chopsticks (a sushi bar no-no, by the way), settle down and have a sushi meal as it would have been eaten by a Japanese connoisseur 70 or 80 years ago. What’s not on the...
March 2010
1 post
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Why I Love Being a Sushi Concierge
By Trevor Corson
Feeling happy this morning: Last night I hosted a private dinner at Jewel Bako for a gentleman named Eric and his wife Michelle, to celebrate her birthday. They were both pretty experienced sushi eaters, but Michelle in particular had been playing it safe over the years.
To Eric’s great delight, Michelle ended up trying things Eric had been encouraging her to try for a...
February 2010
1 post
1 tag
Small Perks
By Trevor Corson
Being a sushi guidance counselor is hard work—last night I hosted a nearly 3-hour dinner for ten guests (okay, I admit they were delightful) at my Monday-night dinner class series at Jewel Bako restaurant. But there are some perks. I don’t get to eat during the meal, but the maître d’ wouldn’t let me leave without taking a box of sushi home myself. Score.
The sushi in the...
November 2009
2 posts
4 tags
The Surprising History of Tuna in Japan
By Trevor Corson
Today, bluefin tuna is considered the pinnacle of fine sushi, especially bluefin toro—the fatty belly cuts of the fish. This is kind of funny, because just a few decades ago the Japanese considered toro such a disgusting part of the tuna that the only people who would eat it were impoverished manual laborers. And prior to about the 1920s, no self-respecting Japanese person...
2 tags
What's With the Mean Sushi Chefs?
By Trevor Corson
Some days I think the most influential Japanese chef in America might actually have been John Belushi.
If you’ve seen Belushi’s “Samurai Delicatessen” skit, originally performed on Saturday Night Live in 1976, you’ll remember him channeling a touchy Japanese chef, perpetually on the verge of violence, who screamed out loud while slicing...
August 2009
2 posts
3 tags
Smarter Sushi = More Authentic Sushi
By Trevor Corson
Big things are happening this summer for a big fish. If conservationists get their way, the Atlantic bluefin tuna, a majestic swimmer that’s long been overharvested for the sushi trade, may soon receive protection as an endangered species. Many sushi lovers are understandably upset, because they don’t want to give up their favorite meal.
But I sit down for a sushi...
1 tag
Good Reasons to Skip the Hamachi
By Trevor Corson
According to some insider info I received recently from a Japanese fish distributor, we can expect the price of hamachi—farmed yellowtail, a sushi favorite—to rise in the near future. The cause: a massive epidemic of red tide that is ravaging Japanese hamachi farms. Details on the red tide epidemic below.
(Red tide is scary stuff—a thousand times more deadly than cyanide. I’ve...
July 2009
3 posts
1 tag
Why Pickled Ginger Is Like Ice Cream
By Trevor Corson
That mound of pinkish pickled ginger on the plate next to your sushi isn’t an appetizer, nor is it a garnish to be added to the sushi. Believe it or not, it’s more like a serving of ice cream. But it’s not dessert, either. It has a much more specific purpose.
In the traditional style of eating at the sushi bar, the chef serves just one or two pieces of nigiri...
1 tag
The Michael Jackson - Sushi Connection
By Trevor Corson
I didn’t think there was one—until now!
American sushi chefs are reinvigorating the traditional cuisine in surprising ways at the moment. One of the more unusual chefs in this movement is an African American woman in Memphis named Marisa Baggett. She’s just written a touching vignette about how Michael Jackson became part, in a roundabout way, of her effort to...
2 tags
That Green Stuff Isn't Wasabi, and It's Not...
By Trevor Corson
It comes as a shock to most of us. Not only is that spicy green paste we call “wasabi” not actually wasabi, it’s not even meant to be served alongside your sushi at all.
First things first. What is it? It’s fake. Instead of being real wasabi, it’s just plain old horseradish, plus some mix of mustard extract, citric acid, yellow dye no. 5, and blue...
June 2009
6 posts
2 tags
Why There Are So Few Women Sushi Chefs
By Trevor Corson
In Japan, sushi is a man’s world. Male chefs use all manner of excuses to defend their sushi bars against women who want to work there. Women can’t be sushi chefs, they say, because makeup, body lotion, and perfume destroy the flavor of the fish and rice. Some male chefs claim that the area behind the sushi bar is sacred space, and would be defiled by the presence...
2 tags
"Normal" Sushi vs. "Authentic" Sushi
By Trevor Corson
A reader of The Story of Sushi wrote in to ask whether I could recommend a place to eat sushi in Chicago. After reading my book, this person had started to wonder whether their local sushi joint was up to snuff.
I receive these sorts of comments a lot. After reading the book people realize what they’re missing when they settle for their usual, run-of-the-mill sushi...
1 tag
The Truth About Chopsticks
By Trevor Corson
Last night I hosted a Sushi Concierge dinner for a family of four, including a young man who was 12 years old. He turned out to be quite the gourmand, keen on the very traditional types of sushi we tried. But he hadn’t yet completely mastered chopsticks. When we started the meal he was worried about this, which gave me the perfect opportunity to share one of my favorites...
2 tags
Shopping Around vs. Getting to Know a Chef
By Trevor Corson
A sushi lover in New York just asked me: “What do you think of Yama on Irving place? My roommates are addicted, and I think it’s good, but just wondering the thoughts of a real critic! :)”
Here’s the thing—I never recommend sushi restaurants. And here’s why:
I sometimes make references to specific sushi restaurants, but having spent a lot of time...
2 tags
New York Times Features My Article on American...
Illustration by Craig Phillips for The Atlantic.
By Trevor Corson
A nice surprise reading the Times with breakfast this morning and discovering that the Week in Review section featured an excerpt from my article in the June issue of the Atlantic on how American sushi chefs are helping to bring the cuisine back to its Japanese roots.
2 tags
Soy Sauce: Yes or No?
By Trevor Corson
There are many things we Westerners don’t know about eating sushi, chief among them the fact that plain old soy sauce is actually not a very good match for most raw fish. Indeed, at a really good sushi bar, it’s often best not to use soy sauce at all.
As I explained at a Sushi Concierge dinner last night, that’s because a top-notch chef will season each...
May 2009
2 posts
2 tags
What If Your Sushi Chef Isn't Japanese, or Even...
Photo: Danish sushi chef Fie Kruse, who is depicted in Trevor Corson’s book The Story of Sushi, prepares dinner for a customer. Photo by Trevor Corson.
By Trevor Corson
Say you walk into a sushi bar in America hungry for an authentic Japanese meal and you’re faced with a choice. There’s an empty seat in front of a chef who looks Japanese. There’s another empty seat in...
Ask a Question
Do you have a question about sushi or is there something you want me to write about? Please add a comment below. I’ll do my best to provide an answer here on The Sushi Concierge Blog.
Incidentally, I generally don’t recommend specific sushi restaurants—for a very good reason, as I explain here.