Trevor Corson - "The Story of Sushi: An Unlikely Saga of Raw Fish and Rice"

(previously titled The Zen of Fish)

Not written extremely well, but lots of fun facts.



"The word *neta* comes from teh word *tane* (pronounced ta-né), which literally means "seed". In old Japan, laborers frequently reversed the syllables of *tane* and used the word *neta* to refer to things that were the seed or source for something."

"These free amino acids are what give seafood much of its taste. They include glutamate, the key flavor component of *umami*, and a particularly sweet-tasting amino acid called glycine. Saltwater fish contain anywhere from three to ten times more of these delicious free amino acids than beef. Another important element in the taste of fish is glutamate's counterpart, IMP, the savory substance that Japanese scientists discovered in such abundance in aged bonito. IMP is created when the high-energy power pellets called ATP break down after the fish's death. Like free amino acids, tasty IMP is more abundant in fish than in animals."

"The muscles of shrimp, prawns, and lobsters are full of enzymes, and are prone to digesting themselves into mush as soon as the animal dies."

"Every *Pandalus* shrimp starts out male. He spends his first two or three years as a bachelor, during which time he generally loses his virginity. Once he's had his fun, his testes transform into ovaries and he matures into a female. At which point, she turns around and hits up the new generation of strapping young males for more sex. There is some evidence that if females are especially numerous, the males can delay their sex change and remain playboys for an extra season or two. Likewise if there aren't enough females, the males may give up their bachelorhood and switch early."

"Crustacean flesh develops delicious aromas and flavors simply by spending a few minutes in boiling water. Most meats can't achieve such high levels of smell and tate without the application of flame or intense heat, and there are a couple of reasons for this. Crustaceans counteract the osmotic pressure of saltwater with an especially taste and concentrated array of amino acids, particularly the same sweet-tasting glycine found in mackerel. Crustacean flesh also contains a high concentration of sugars. With the application of a little heat, these amino acids and sugars react with each other, creating the same sort of delicious and aromatic molecules produced in the meat of mammals and most fish, only at much higer temperatures."

"Mackerel is perilous to serve raw. Mackerel is so difficult to keep fresh that Japanese chefs sometimes call if the fish that 'spoils even while still alive.' Humans can also pick up more than fifty different parasites from eating raw or undercooked fish, removal of parasites can require surgery. A worm calle danisakis is one of the most prevalent parasites, and its larvae love living inside mackerel.
The clever larvae of anisakis swim around looking delicious. They *want* to be eaten, and usually a small crustacean will oblige. The larvae live happily in the stomach of the shrimp or krill until a mackerel comes along and eats the crustacean. Then the larvae burrow into the lining of the fish's gut or, less often, into its flesh.
Mackerel serve the larvae's purpose only because sooner or later a mammal will eat the mackerel, preferably a dolphin, porpoise, or whale. Once in the stomach of a mammal, the larvae molt and become adult worms. The worms use a mouth like a boring tool to drill into the mammal's stomach wall. They mate and lay eggs, which emerge in the mammal's feces, starting the cycle again."

"Sashimi didn't have to be fish. It could be anything, even the meat of deer, wild boar, or birds."

"Probably beginning around 800 years ago, people began to use the word *sashimi* as well as *namasu*. *sashi* means 'to stick or pierce,' and *mi* means 'meat.' There are two theories about the origin of the word *sashimi*.
One is that the chef would 'stick' a fin from the fish among the slices as a decoration that indicated the type of fish. The other is that *sashi* was a euphemism for *kiri*, 'to cut.' In the culture of the samurai, calling the meal *kirimi* - sliced meat - would have raised unpleasant connotations of sword fighting and human bloodshed."

"Most commercial wasabi served in sushi bars isn't wasabi at all. It's a mix of horseradish powder, mustard powder, mustard extract, citric acid, yellow dye no. 5, and blue dye no. 1. Real wasabi is a rare and finicky plant. It's hard to grow, nearly impossible to keep fresh, tricky to prepare, and absurdly expensive. It's also much more delicious than its contrived counterpart. [...] Real wasabi tastes sweeter, more subtle, and less spicy than the horseradish that passes for wasabi today. [...] The highest-quality wasabi comes from a mountainous region southwest of Tokyo called Amagi. Wasabi experts refer to all other wasabi simply as *bachi* - 'from someplace else.'"

"When an insect or slug, for instance, bites into a member of the cabbage family, it's in for a rude shock. By breaking into the plant's cells, the predator cracks open the compartments, and the compound and the enzyme mix. The enzymes rip the sugars off the glucosinolate, converting it to an intense irritatn called isothiocyanate, known to most people as mustard oil. Mustard oil is a highly volatile substance that converts rapidly to a gas and irritates mucous membranes in mammals. It's often used in cat and dog repellent. Mustard oil is so toxic that it damages the plant as much as it hurts the predator, which is why cabbages must store it with the sugars attached."

"In the relatively cold climataes at higher latitudes, where salmon live, the ocean provides a richer buffet of nourishing food than freshwater. But freshwater streams are sfer places for babies to grow up. By taking advantage of both environments, salmon eat well, and their eggs and young have high survival rates.
Salmon smell their way back to their birthplace. As they begin their trek upstream from the ocean, they eat the last meal of their lives. From then on they will survive by burning their own fat and digesting the proteins in their own muscles.
As they head upriver they also undergo astonishing anatomical changes, not unlike Dr. David Banner's transforming into the Incredible Hulk. At sea, salmon are handsome and respectable-looking silver fish. By the time they return to their home streams, depending on the species, they have developed green heads, bright-red skin, bizarre coclor patterens, beaked jaws with nasty teeth, and hunched backs."

"two different *nigiri*, one topped with wild salmon, one topped with farmed salmon. The flesh of the wild fish was usually dark, pungent, and - depending on when and where it had been caught - relatively lean. It didn't melt in your mouth, you had to chew it. The taste was strong and the flesh had texture.
The farmed fish was soft, pale, and striped with thick streaks of fat. And, by comparison, it tasted bland."

"When it comes to sex, snappers are the opposite of shrimp. They all start out as females. After a year or two, some of them perform a sex-change operation on themselves and become male."

Alias Grace

Interesting mini series based on the book by Margaret Atwood. Roughly based on real life murders but she added extra characters and her own spin.

Wonder Woman

Enjoyable. Nothing crazy.

Philip Roth - "American Pastorale"

It was a nice book but sometimes his descriptions would go on page after page after page... while not adding anything. Why describe at the very end all the flowers that Merry used to point out as a kid? Does it improve the dramatic tension of her home-coming? No. Not for me.

But the rant of his brother through the phone, showing how the Swede didn't know anything, that was amazing.