End of sushi??
 

Have you seen the latest radiation numbers from the Japan reactor and the adjacent ocean waters?? A frightened world is already boycotting Japanese fish and Japanese seaports, how many days or weeks will it be before sushi restaurants worldwide close down for lack of customers?

Akio Morita: Think globally, act locally

Local and cheaper fish will see their days of glory? I would readily welcome that.

I was under the impression that most fish is caught semi-locally - i.e., fish caught near Japan tends to be eaten in Japan.

I do know that much of the bluefin tuna consumed in Japan comes from the Mediterranean or other international waters - bluefin migrate across oceans. And they are woefully overfished, with the WWF and the French government saying that the bluefin will be extinct by 2013 at current rates. Japan has consistently fought listing the bluefin as an endangered species.

Also, are people really afraid to eat fish? Do you have any idea how much water there is in the ocean? You could pump water with a hundred of those hyper fire truck pumps for a year right through Chernobyl and still not have enough contaminated water to make the water in the Pacific ocean dangerous.

I cannot remember the last time I had sushi made of any fish caught in Japanese waters. Even the tuna I have is almost solely from Australia or Indonesia.

More likely to see end of Sake. Don't even consider drinking any sake of a recent vintage. This I just heard from a well-versed restauranteur. He also suggests not drinking Japanese beer.

We're all still eating shrimp out of the Gulf of Mexico and beef after mad cow was discovered in the US. I doubt our eating habits will change at all.

There is a decent amount of pretty good domestic (US) Sake. It doesn't compete on the high end, but it's not awful.

i already stocked up with some japanese sake at a recent local sake fest in hk (started @ 12/mar) so noway its contaminated.... also i got some sapporo bear :o i hope they'll last

How much sapporo BEAR can you stock up on your fridge? Make sure they were humanely slaughtered. :D

yeah I think most of the typical Salmon, Tuna sushi isn't from Japan

I frequent a sushi restaurant here in Denver.. yeah, I know that doesn't sound like a good idea. But the proprietors have family in Japan that overnights them fish shipments daily from the Tsukiji market in Tokyo. I'd be interested to see how (fi any) this has affected their buying habits.

swordfishs too. and sea urchin can be found at different placess

I hope not... as soon as its safe I say folks should eat more to support Japan in its rebuilding efforts... ^

Isn't mercury a much bigger problem when it comes to sushi?

I'm more inclined towards Japanese Kobe Beef at this point.. Am really worried of the price hikes, and certainly other Japanese imports such as snacks, etc.

Actually their beef is the worst I have ever come across, downright nasty in fact. They can continue to overpay for what is a completely gross piece of fat rather than meat, and I'll gladly take perfectly lean, cherry-red beef at a fraction of the price. And at the end of the day, everybody's happy. :)

Its good fat though.. :D

Well, presumably any sake currently available in the US and elsewhere was brewed before the nuclear meltdown... and will likely continue to be so for a few years.

indeed. esp when the fish comes from the atlantic not pacific

If Kobe beef goes on sale because of radiation fears, would you buy it?

I would.. :)

I'm taking a trip to HK in 2 weeks and a ton of people have asked me if I'm going to eat the fish... I wasn't too worried... I looked up winds and currents and the 1/2 life of the contaminates and all pointed in my favor, but the more people ask me the more worried I become. Thoughts?

Now that's just silly. While Fukushima produces some great sakes, sake is produced all over Japan, in areas far from Fukushima. And check the labels; much of the "Japanese" beers sold in America are brewed in Canada under license.

I second that. Can someone get me some please? :cool:

Lack of customers was not a problem last night at the four sushi bars I passed on my way to dinner at a fifth. I don't think that much of the fish here in Texas is coming from Japanese waters though - and I think sushi has become enough of a "global" food that people just aren't thinking "Japan" when they eat it anymore.

Mercury is a much bigger issue than radiation and one that isn't easily solved or going away, radiation will dissipate long before mercury subsides.

The problem is how can you tell if the fish you are eating has either one? So what are we to do? Quit eating sushi and start eating more pizza and burgers? :-)

Personally I'll take my chances and hopefully the health benefits will outweigh any possible mercury or radiation.

Yeah, even with the worry about trace amount of mercury/radiation in fish I'd stick to sushi over pizza/burgers any day. :)

I think this is only really for Tuna.
Salmon is still pretty okay

News says 50% of all fish sold by restaurants are not wht they claim to be. Most likely you are eating talapia or tuna imitations.

sure, also what is considered sustainable sushi of which Bluefin Tuna & Unagi are not considered sustainable at today's current harvest rates, IIRC.

if you went to see Men In Black 3, then it's even more scary because they
may be serving "other" kinds of fish. :D

Seems like a bunch of fear mongering to me. While the area around Fukishima might be sketchy, it's silly to take readings from there and apply them to the whole body of water around Japan.

Truth.

Anyone interested learning more about the decline of fisheries worldwide should check out Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood by Taras Grescoe. It opened my eyes and forever changed how I eat seafood.

You have more to worry about general pollution than any possible radionuclides in the fish.

Eat your seafood and enjoy it.

You'd still be getting taken as there is no Kobe beef sold in the US.

Cheaper sushi restaurants serve a product called 'white tuna' which is not actually tuna, but another heavily oily fish which is not recommended for consumption as it can cause excessive loose stools. If you see something called 'white tuna', just avoid it.

Albacore and yellowtail are the 'white flesh' tuna versions - yellowtail/hamachi is very delicious, while albacore is harder to find raw (and usually the stuff that ends up in cans) - but if you can find it raw, it's delicate and delicious.

I would steer clear of bluefin and other red-flesh tunas which are being over-fished to the point of extinction.