Nathan Palmer
1st December 2005, 17:55
I was eating sushi the other night at a favorite place and I saw the chef had a book on sushi up on a shelf behind his counter. I asked him about it and he said: “Oh yeah. I’ve been reading this. I can’t believe it. This guy knows more about sushi than I do.”
I know this chef pretty well. He trained in Tokyo. He’s been in the sushi business for more than twenty years. So I asked to see the book and started looking through it. It’s an incredible book. Something like an encyclopedia of sushi. It’s got chapters on freaking everything related to sushi. A whole chapter on nori seaweed and a chapter on how wasabi is grown and how it gets made and why it’s hot. There are chapters on several dozen different sushi toppings. And all kinds of information on Japanese culture. There’s even a chapter on why plates in sushi places are like they are and why the sushi gets arranged on them the way it does.
Then I started reading it and I’m almost falling off my stool. It’s hilarious. The writer’s got this snide, dry sense of humor. It sounds like Dennis Miller writing about sushi. I’m wondering: who the hell is this guy? I look at the cover.
Written by Dave Lowry. Can’t be? It is. When I got home I looked it up on the internet and it’s the same guy. I’ve read his books and I always assumed he had spent every moment of his life doing budo. Apparently not.
It’s called The Connoisseur’s Guide to Sushi. The Border’s near me had it in stock and I have been reading it all week. It’s almost numbing it’s so detailed. But you keep going because it’s so damned funny as well. Anyway, if you’re into sushi, you have got to get this book.
I know this chef pretty well. He trained in Tokyo. He’s been in the sushi business for more than twenty years. So I asked to see the book and started looking through it. It’s an incredible book. Something like an encyclopedia of sushi. It’s got chapters on freaking everything related to sushi. A whole chapter on nori seaweed and a chapter on how wasabi is grown and how it gets made and why it’s hot. There are chapters on several dozen different sushi toppings. And all kinds of information on Japanese culture. There’s even a chapter on why plates in sushi places are like they are and why the sushi gets arranged on them the way it does.
Then I started reading it and I’m almost falling off my stool. It’s hilarious. The writer’s got this snide, dry sense of humor. It sounds like Dennis Miller writing about sushi. I’m wondering: who the hell is this guy? I look at the cover.
Written by Dave Lowry. Can’t be? It is. When I got home I looked it up on the internet and it’s the same guy. I’ve read his books and I always assumed he had spent every moment of his life doing budo. Apparently not.
It’s called The Connoisseur’s Guide to Sushi. The Border’s near me had it in stock and I have been reading it all week. It’s almost numbing it’s so detailed. But you keep going because it’s so damned funny as well. Anyway, if you’re into sushi, you have got to get this book.