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Sushi, The Environment and My Brother: Three Things I Love

Yesterday this appeared in my inbox fromiPhoneGran‘s favorite child my brother:

I don’t know if you remember my Sushi place in Seattle (I don’t remember if you ever went). In any case, over the last decade they have become friends of ours and fed us meals beyond belief.

Recently, Hajime has decided to only serve sustainable fish. Partly because it’s the right thing to do and partly because he (as do I) want fish like Bluefin tuna to be around to eat in the next few years.

There’s a lot of info at www.seafoodwatch.org about what’s safe and what’s not.

His restaurant is Mashiko (his sustainable message is here).

I was up there last week and my friends and I spent about 6 hours there eating and drinking.

He says business is hurting because things like eel are off the menu. Well every sushi restaurant in the US gets their eel pre cooked and pre marinated in the sugar sauce and in plastic shrink wrap. It’s not really that good, its sweet but it’s stupidly popular in the US. He’s found that catfish makes a suitable substitute and with food that is masked by sauce people wouldn’t know the difference if he didn’t tell him.

I could go on for hours (and he could go on further) about the nitrogen used on maguro (tuna) to keep it at that perfect dark red.

White tuna is not tuna, it’s escolar.

Chilean Sea Bass is neither from Chile nor is it a Sea Bass.

There’s no rules in fish sales and it’s all marketing and Hajime has been no BS since day one.

Anyway….he’s doing something really good, the food is still phenomenal and I thought you might want to help get the word out or find a new topic for your blog. Also, he will be on “Extreme Cuisine with Jeff Corwin” this Thurs 10/8 at 6pm (I Think on Food Network).

There are three things I love in this world that haven’t had enough attention on this blog.

1. Food: I love good fresh food, I love to prepare it, I love to eat it and I love to share it with family and friends. Think about your childhood memories, it’s likely that they are infused with taste and scent memories. There are few things more powerful than the scent of a fresh peach in the summertime, or the whiff of pumpkin pie in the autumn. Food sustains us, and it should be a source of great pleasure as well.

2. The Environment: We are stewards of this Earth, from the top of Mount Kilimanjaro to the bottom of the sea. It’s our duty and our honor to care for it.

3. My Brother: I love him. My brother is the smartest person I’ve ever met. He loves dining at Mashiko, and I’m asking you to trust my brother.

If you’re in Seattle, email me pictures of your dining experience at Mashiko and I’ll share them here and on Whrrl. We sure to visit SeafoodWatch.org and Ocean Futures Society to find out what you can do. No one is asking you to be vegan, simply, to be thoughtful.

Arigatou gozaimasu