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The Sushi Economy: Globalization and the Making of a Modern Delicacy
written by Sasha Issenberg
Studio : Gotham
by Gotham
Publisher : Gotham
Released : 2007-05-03
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9781592402946
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 12 reviews)
List Price : $26.00
Our Price : $1.96
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Product Description |
From the sea to your plate, the first international tour of sushi’s journey in the global marketplace
One generation ago, sushi’s narrow reach ensured that sports fishermen who caught tuna in most of the world sold the meat for pennies as cat food. Today, the fatty cuts of tuna known as toro are among the planet’s most coveted luxury foods, worth hundreds of dollars a pound and capable of losing value more quickly than any other product on earth. So how has one of the world’s most popular foods gone from being practically unknown in the U.S. to being served in towns all across America, and in such a short span of time? Sushi aficionados and newcomers alike will be surprised to learn the true history, intricate business, and international allure behind this fascinating food.
A riveting combination of culinary biography, behind-the-scenes restaurant detail, and a unique exploration of globalization’s dynamics, journalist Sasha Issenberg traces sushi’s journey from Japanese street snack to global delicacy. THE SUSHI ECONOMY takes you through the stalls of Tokyo’s massive Tsukiji market, where the auctioneers sell millions of dollars of fish each day, and to the birthplace of modern sushi--in Canada. He then follows sushi’s evolution in America, exploring how it became LA’s favorite food. You’re taken behind the sushi bar with the chef Nobu Matsuhisa, whose distinctive travels helped to define the flavors of global sushi cuisine, and with a unique sushi chef blazing a path in Texas. Issenberg also delves into the complex economics of the fish trade, following the ups and downs of the hunt for bluefin off New England, the tuna cowboys on the southern coast of Australia who invented the art of tuna ranching, and uncovering the mysterious underworld of pirates, smugglers, and the tuna black market.
Few businesses reveal the complex dynamics of globalization as acutely as the tuna’s journey from the sea to the sushi bar. After traversing the pages of THE SUSHI ECONOMY, you’ll never see the food on your plate — or the world around you — quite the same way again. |
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Globalization of food |
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A fascinating look at what is often perceived as a sign of material sophistication - sushi as refined taste over volume - even if such claims are unfounded. Implicitly equating sushi to a cultural artifact of Japan, I found it interesting to see the evolution, and the trading and supports networks around the world which have formed to support the industry. In reality, sushi is an artifact of our globalized economy: fish and tuna trade networks, the preparation, the ingredients. There is an enormous amount of complexity in the simple meal we have all come to enjoy - great book. |
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Excellent book about sushi but also the tuna supply chain |
I found this to be an excellent book and great/quick read. I've been passing it around to people since.
I bought the book, a day after visiting Tsukiji and it does a great job of pulling the curtain and really explaining the movement of a fish from the sea to the individual ordering a sushi. The economics and how sushi became the economic force of the tuna trade are really amazing and well described. While the book focuses heavily on Tuna, it will teach more about supply chain than most people know, and what goes for Tuna goes also for other species though to lesser extent. |
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Sasha Issenberg circles the globe to give you The Sushi Economy |
This is a very compelling, informative and fun read. Author Issenberg covers 360 degrees of the sushi economy, giving you its markets (presenting the famous Tsukiji marketplace in Tokyo as the nexus of this world), buyers, consumers, fishers, ranchers, activists, restaurateurs and entrepreneurs. Locales like Tokyo, LA and New York are to be expected. What's unexpected are sushi's effect on such outposts like Austin, TX and Port Lincoln, South Australia, population 14,740 and home to the world's most successful concentration of sushi ranch-farmer entrepreneurs.
Issenberg has an economist's knowledge and understanding, but conveys the market dynamics in an approachable, lively way. Take this one passage as an example: "Instead of looking to regulate producers...Izawa had decided to insert himself within a trade network and become another broker of taste and credibility. Pirates saw each turn in the corner along global commerce's disjointed maze of borders and laws as places behind which they could hide; Izawa saw a series of checkpoints, where new gatekeepers could exercise authority. For that job, he had enlisted his countrymen not as activists but as consumers, and tapped into currents already flowing through Japanese culture. By going after foreign farms, Izawa respected the visceral fears of the island nation and indirectly flattered the Japanese idea of their country's good international citizenship."
The book is chock full of passages like that which show deep and learned understanding of markets, networks, cultures and human behavior. |
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From yuk to yum |
Sushi has changed from yuk to yum. This book makes eating raw fish an intriguing case study of hunter-gatherer global economics.
"The Sushi Economy" traces eating raw tuna from nineteenth-century restaurants in Japan to twenty-first century ocean ranches in Australia. Small pieces of fresh raw fish were first preserved using vinegared rice. The rice, first thrown away, came to be savoured as part of the meal. This was "Edo-mae nigiri" raw tuna sushi.
Centuries later a Japan Airlines executive began flying Canadian Bluefin to Tokyo to use spare cargo space. Then an Australian fisherman began ranching tuna by herding the wild fish into ocean corrals. Now researchers are trying to raise tuna directly from fertilized eggs. Wherever tuna are found; wherever sushi is sold: entrepreneurs are innovating and communities are growing.
This book entertains and informs, leaving the reader with a wonderful example of modern economics and success. |
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A fun easy to read book on sushi |
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This book doesn't do as great of a job tying all of its points together and guide you through his thinking of how sushi became popular, but it's interesting to take all of the case studies in the book and making the connections yourself. |
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