Sushi lovers will love the book The Zen of Fish: The Story of Sushi, from Samurai to Supermarket by Trevor Corson. I certainly enjoyed the read because the book is filled with the history of sushi, scientific explanation of the common types of fish and seafood eaten in Japanese cuisine, and it gives an insight into the arduous training required to become a sushi chef.
If you think the book will read like a science textbook, please let me allay your fears. The book is nothing like that and is, in fact, very engaging. The human interest element in the book is provided by the owner of the California Sushi Academy, Toshi Sugiura, and this particular class of students that Corson has chosen to document in writing. For 10 weeks, Corson is like this omnipresence in the sushi classroom where he observes the students and their progress. He reports on their success and struggles and, in particular, chooses to focus on three students. The first a 20-year-old woman who’s overcoming personal struggles as well as those in handling live fish, sharpening knives etc. The second, a former Japanese pop star who has abandoned his pop career in his native land to pursue his love for the culinary arts. Lastly, a young 17-year-old hormone-raging boy who thinks that learning to cook sushi during his summer break is going to score with a whole bevy of girls.
Interspersed with this narrative are easy-to-understand explanations of things such as:
– How miso is made – has to do with some kind of bacteria
– How umami comes about – something about amino acids
– How sushi came about and the different varieties that exist in different parts of Japan – very interesting! What we know as ‘sushi’ today actually originated in Tokyo as a form of fastfood. But the first forms of sushi appeared way before that in other parts of Japan and looked different.
– What type of rice is best for sushi – short grain most expensive. So cheaper joints actually use medium grain rice.
– Why you need to wash sushi rice with freezing cold water – sushi apprentices in Japan can spend up to about two years just washing rice every day till their hands go numb!
– The California roll, dragon roll, and caterpillar roll being bastardised versions of sushi
– Why mackerel (saba) is perilous to serve raw
– Why yellowtail (it goes by a variety of names depending on the stage of growth) is such a popular fish. Anyway, kanpachi is lean, wild yellowtail whilst hamachi is farmed and is a closely related species to kanpachi.
– How flat fish like halibut, turbot, and flounder evolved. Did you know some of them have eyes on the right (karei) and some have eyes on the left (hirame). At sushi bars in Japan, hirame have a reputation for being more delicious and hence are more expensive. Karei are cheaper and tend to be eaten cooked.
– How the anatomy of a fish affects the way it is being sliced for sushi and sashimi. E.g. the veins in tuna run along the body and converge into one point. So sushi chefs like to slice tuna in triangular pieces so that it looks more visually appealing when plated.
– Why it’s rude to call a woman maguro, i.e. tuna – because tuna fish swim stiffly and so calling a woman maguro means she is stiff during sex. Wahaha.
Apart from all that, readers are also introduced to octopuses, geo-ducks, tuna (all three varieties), sea urchin and other sea creatures that we gamely tuck into. The book also teaches us the correct way to eat nigiri sushi!
Like the blade of an accomplished sushi chef’s knife, the language of The Zen of Fish is sharp and succinct. It’s a book I’d highly recommend to anyone who’s interested in knowing more about Japanese food. In reading this book, I’ve been accorded with a much better understanding and appreciation of Japanese cuisine, as well as the effort and pains put into constructing a meal. The book is also marketed under the title The Story of Sushi: An Unlikely Saga of Raw Fish and Rice and it can found in the Singapore National Library.