The sushi cops have apparently been called off - if you have a good memory, you’ll remember this post from late last year, in which I detailed Japanese plans to go abroad and rate Japanese restaurants in other countries.

Something that most people felt was pretty cheeky given the penchant for mentaiko spaghetti and mayonnaise on pizza that the locals wear on their sleeves. I’ve yet to see an Italian in a Japanese version of their restaurant checking boxes on a clipboard, the whole while clicking his tongue & shaking his head.

I think he’d be more than entitled to, given the thought process behind the Japanese idea -

The plan had been championed by Agriculture Minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka, who has accused overseas restaurants of using “culinary techniques and ingredients far removed from those of authentic Japanese food”.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the idea is now, thankfully, dead in the water. And I say thankfully not just because of the idiocy of the plan, but also because of this little bit of trivia I hadn’t noticed previously -

The ministry had earmarked more than Y276 million ($A2.9 million) for the project.

Pensions in crisis. Rural communities disappearing. Sushi is more important?

If you lose something in Japan, you’ll get it back. At least, there’s a very high chance you’ll get it back, especially if you live in the countryside. Unless I pick it up. (see pic.)

Lost gloves, umbrellas, hats and so on will be picked up off the road and hung neatly on the nearest fence. There was a glove that stayed on a fence for most of last winter, before it blew off and disappeared forever. I doubt it was missed.

I heard a story recently of a girl who lost her passport and it was handed in to the police station almost before she even noticed it was gone.

Even when you forget your bike at the station, it’ll be months before anybody comes along to turf it out of the way of the rest of us folk who actually need the space your forgetfulness is costing us. (Which reminds me, I really should get a picture of the huge pile of forgotten bicycles at my station. You’ll love it.)

I found this panda the other night at the station, and will be returning him there forthwith. In keeping with the Japanese way.

He’s a sushi fan, donchaknow…

Japan’s Agricultural Ministry is on a mission. A mission from the sushi gods. A mission to send out their sushi cops and inspect restaurants the world over to determine whether the sushi you can get in those god forsaken other countries is worthy of the name. (source - Digital Chosunilbo : English version)

They haven’t yet announced how exactly they’re going to enforce the iron laws of the sushi gods - I suspect good restaurants will probably get a nice shiny sticker to put in their window: “Winner of 5 sushi stars!” or “Member of the Holy Order of Sushi Samurai”. They have also not yet announced any criteria, but I suspect that having your customers die from radiation poisoning is not part of the traditional japanese experience they have in mind.

Nor, I would suspect, is the Japanese tradition found just across the road from the hotel where I stayed in Paris - a sushi and yakitori restaurant, run by a Chinese family, with yakitori (literally, fried chicken) made from fish, and as an after dinner drink, the waiter brought us some shokoshu - Chinese fire water.

Despite these differences from the traditional Japanese experience, the sushi was quite good, although figuring out which language to speak to the waiter in was something else entirely…

I’ll have to side with Milly Togasa, a restaurant owner in Bali, whose father was Japanese. She talks in the article of a terrible sushi shop she went to in New York -

I found out that the owner had nothing to do with Japan, neither did the chefs or anybody there. But the people in the neighborhood loved the place and loved the food - so what’s wrong with that?

What, indeed.

Owners of Japanese restaurants abroad might do well to view this archive footage, which details exactly what a sushi shop is like in Japan.

Japan is often very unpopular with much of the rest of the world for continuing whaling - critics have said that its barbaric and unnecessary to kill the whales for scientific research. Supporters purport that the essential research can only be done on dead whales.

I’m inclined to agree with them after a trip to one of the Hana no Mai chain restaurants the other night.

Without this research, how else would you have stumbled upon the marvels of Whale Carpaccio, Whale Bacon, Whale with Kimchi and the all time classic Whale sushi?

(Click on pic for larger menu view.)

12. September 2006Japan, Japanese Culture, Sushi 0 Comments »