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The Sushi Economy: Globalization and the Making of a Modern Delicacy
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Manufacturer: Gotham
Average Customer Rating: Average rating of 4.5/5Average rating of 4.5/5Average rating of 4.5/5Average rating of 4.5/5Average rating of 4.5/5

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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.692
EAN: 9781592402946
ISBN: 1592402941
Label: Gotham
Manufacturer: Gotham
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: 2007-05-03
Publisher: Gotham
Studio: Gotham

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Editorial Reviews:

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.


Spotlight customer reviews:

Customer Rating: Average rating of 3/5Average rating of 3/5Average rating of 3/5Average rating of 3/5Average rating of 3/5
Summary: Follow sushi around the world
Comment: MY RATING SYSTEM:

* - if you have to chose between torture and reading this book, then you might want to consider reading the book - although it depends on just how severe the torture would be.

** - if you've lost your job and have quite a bit of free time on your hands, and don't have anything else better to do, then you might want to consider reading this book; don't expect to learn much or really be entertained. It will however, help you pass the time until your death.

*** - meh...I'm indifferent. Reading this book will not alter your life in any significant way, yet it is not so horrendously dreadful that your taking the time to read it will be a complete waste of time.

**** - Good book to great book zone here. You should probably read this book if you have some spare time. This book could be interesting, entertaining, or informative.

***** - Outstanding book! Make time to read this book - you'll learn or be entertained or intrigued. The book might even be good enough to provide original or helpful insights into the world that we live in.

REVIEW:

The Sushi Economy provides readers with a broad, yet at times seemingly disparate account of the evolution and current state of the sushi industry, with a particular emphasis on the journey through time and space of the bluefin tuna.

Issenberg's focus throughout the book is on the dynamic nature of the sushi industry, and the role of global economic markets in facilitating the increase in popularity of the cuisine. The author takes the story from the first attempts to ship bluefin from Atlantic Canada to the Japanese fish market, and brings it back to the time when tuna - especially the fatty cuts of meat from the belly area, now known as toro - was far from a desirable food, instead serving as food for cats. From this point in time, the story progresses over the first few chapters through the development of the leading Japanese fish market, techniques for evaluating and valuing bluefin tuna at the markets, to the process of the auctions that facilitate the sale of the fish.

Issenberg provides much detail into the lives of the individuals that he profiles as he tells the stories of the key wholesalers, the buyers, and the other key players in the global tuna trade. At time his descriptions can seem a bit excessive, but they do add much 'colour' if that is what one is looking for in the book. After taking the reader through the evolution of the Japanese fish market and tuna trade, through the remaining chapters of the book, Issenberg covers a number of different stories that demonstrate the global impact sushi - from covering the evolution of sushi in the United States in California, to profiling the rise of celebrity sushi chefs such as Nobu Matsuhisa, to following the investigations of a Spaniard dedicated to tracking the illegal trade in tuna.

The book's 'global market' theme permeates throughout, and Issenberg clearly communicates to the sushi aficionado the dependency of the delicacy on globalisation. Issenberg paints the sushi consumer as the ultimate beneficiary of a globalized economy that facilitates the complex logistics required in order to transport a bluefin across the world and back, through numerous hands - often handling the fish with the inherited knowledge of past generations - and finally to the tastebuds of the customer.

In summary, while I found the book interesting and enjoyed the discussions of the fish markets, how sushi developed and how a fish is caught, transported, valued, bought and sold, and converted into a bite-size morsel - I felt that some of the later chapters of the book that included profiles of apparently prominent individuals in the global sushi economy tended to drag a bit, and generally did not offer the same value to me as a reader as those earlier chapters in the book.

Customer Rating: Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5
Summary: Globalization of food
Comment: 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.

Customer Rating: Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5
Summary: Excellent book about sushi but also the tuna supply chain
Comment: 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.

Customer Rating: Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5
Summary: Sasha Issenberg circles the globe to give you The Sushi Economy
Comment: 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.

Customer Rating: Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5
Summary: From yuk to yum
Comment: 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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