A friend recommended The Sushi Economy: Globalization and the Making of a Modern Delicacy by Sasha Issenberg before I went to Japan last August. I ordered it...and promptly allowed it to begin collecting dust in my office. This past week I decided that I really, really needed to read it, and I have to admit I'm glad that I did. It's an incredibly readable look at the world's changing food cultures, supply chain, and interconnectedness. Issenberg is hot on the tail of sushi from the massive Tsukiji market in Tokyo to sushi restaurants from LA to the Bahamas, to the source of the tuna itself, in the waters off Prince Edward Island, Gibraltar, and Australia. Along the way, he meets and interviews everyone from fishermen to environmentalists to sushi chefs, giving a human face to every step of the process.
In many ways, The Sushi Economy reminded me of The Beekeeper's Lament, in that it takes its reader on a circuitous route to understand the ins and outs of a single product, as well as the perils of feeding a world that increasingly wants more of the "best things." In China alone, Issenberg predicts 50 million new sushi fiends by 2020, assuming only one-tenth of China's middle-class population develops a taste for the food.
(As a side note, I never include pictures in my blog, but I'm adding a couple that I took at Tsukiji last August, so you can get a sense of the place that sells a million dollar fish.)
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