fish, when you could just as easily have a big juicy steak? Coming from
generations of cattle rancher stock, I read Jonathan Safran Foer’s ringing
defense of vegetarianism, Eating Animals<\/a>, with trepidation. But the only
beef I ended up having with Foer was that he ruined my ability to enjoy the raw and the rolled—right after I had moved to sushi paradise, Seattle.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“Imagine being served a plate of sushi. But this plate also <\/p>\n Foer describes modern fishing as warfare. Hajime Sato has a <\/p>\n But Sato isn’t an environmentalist author or even a <\/p>\n Sato, who not only serves sushi but teaches others how to <\/p>\n Trenor knows just about everything that’s wrong or right <\/p>\n After talking to Trenor about sustainability, Sato said, <\/p>\n <\/a>Not your typical sushi chef. Not your typical sushi. Photo by Phu Son Nguyen of sushiday.com“Don’t do anything mediocre,” he says. Not a surprising personal <\/p>\n Sato took a big risk with his 15-year-old, award-winning <\/p>\n The first few months were rocky; Sato couldn’t sleep for <\/p>\n But business rebounded and he continues to be resolute about <\/p>\n Although the plight of the Bluefin tuna has made headlines <\/p>\n <\/a>Whatcha doin’ back there? This mysterious lover is a breed of eel that won’t end up on your plate. Its populations also happen to be healthy. Photo courtesy Richard Ling via Flickr The spooky thing about eels, besides their mean mugs, is <\/p>\n Wild or farmed, eating unagi is never a good idea. In eel <\/p>\n Eel is classified as a red fish in Trenor’s book. Helpfully, <\/p>\n Sato mostly serves green fish, but he serves some yellow, <\/p>\n But what if every fish out there was classified red Then I’m not going to serve. I’m going to have a vegetarian Keeping up to date on the status of each fish he serves <\/p>\n Trenor and Sato’s relationship continues. Sato reads <\/p>\n Sato, the first traditionally trained sushi chef to go <\/p>\n Though he doesn’t intend to challenge veteran sushi chefs <\/p>\n <\/a>Have you ever even heard of the Sanma fish? Photo by Phu Son Nguyen of sushiday.com“I had to say goodbye to distributors that I’d been using <\/p>\n In the past, his business philosophy was to make sushi <\/p>\n Ultimately, Sato believes the fate of the fish and our <\/p>\n If you’re not in the Seattle <\/p>\n The Monterey Bay Aquarium has a good, simple pocket guide<\/a> as well. And you can see how your local seafood restaurants measure up at Fish2Fork<\/a>. Finally, check out Mashiko’s website sushiwhore.com<\/a>, where you can read Sato’s blog about sustainability, peruse his mouth-watering menu, and watch silly sushi videos. (And it’s pointed out that sake is sustainable.)<\/p>\n Related Links:<\/strong><\/p>\n Why America’s greenest mayor got no love<\/a><\/p>\n Break with consumerism to save the world, Worldwatch report urges<\/a><\/p>\n
holds all of the animals that were killed for your serving of sushi. The plate
might have to be five feet across,” Foer writes. At current rates of fishery depletion, scientists
predict the demise of most seafood by 2048<\/a>.<\/p>\n
similar take: “[It’s] like someone is beating somebody and I’m just walking by
and noticing it but not doing anything about it.”<\/p>\n
vegetarian. He’s chef and owner of Mashiko<\/a>, a Seattle sushi restaurant. Not wanting to
throw punches himself anymore, he revised his menu to include only sustainable
fish last August.<\/p>\n
prepare it, knew the dreadful truth about certain fish. For a time, however, he
served them anyway. But then he met Casson Trenor, author of Sustainable Sushi<\/a>.<\/p>\n
about what can end up between your chopsticks. For instance, the most
disgusting thing about shrimp isn’t even their visible poop veins: “Some shrimpers have been known to discard
more than ten pounds of unwanted sea life for every pound of shrimp they keep,”
he writes.<\/p>\n
“Okay, within three months, I’ll change it [the menu] entirely.” Trenor didn’t
believe Sato. But, Sato recalls, “I said ‘No, when I say I’ll do
something, I’ll do it. That’s me.’” And he did.<\/p>\n
motto from someone who races motorcycles and whose diners are greeted by a sign
that reads “Please wait to be seated. Unless you’re illiterate.”<\/p>\n
restaurant.<\/p>\n
worrying. “Should I go back? Am I doing the right thing?” he asked himself,
“People don’t get it.”<\/p>\n
sustainability. He finds careless pescatarians’ logic odd and is
incredulous that there are international laws against eating cheetahs, but
Bluefin tuna have only very limited protection. “You can basically wipe the
entire species out in a week and say okay, next …”<\/p>\n
recently<\/a>, Sato points out that eel (unagi) is the worst fish to serve. “Eel is
actually [at] the category of extinction. It’s not even endangered anymore. But
people are still eating it,” he says.<\/p>\n
their mysterious breeding habits. It’s not just that eel lovin’ is an
unpleasant subject: “They [eels] go back and forth between fresh water and salt
water about four or five times in their
life. And we have no idea how they mate, how they reproduce at all. So let’s
not really touch the eel.”<\/p>\n
farms, they take the young from the wild and fatten them up. Those eels never
even get the chance to do whatever only God knows they do in the dark.<\/p>\n
he divides fish into three color categories.
Green means chow down: “These
fish and shellfish are caught or farmed in ways that don’t have any major
adverse effect on the environment.” Nimbly nibble yellow fish: “Animals in this
category are from fisheries that are either poorly understood or have some
troubling characteristics. Limit your consumption of these animals.” And red, of course, means by all means stop:
“Fish and shellfish are caught or farmed in a manner that is inordinately
deleterious to the health of the oceans.”<\/p>\n
too. Occasionally a customer will ask him, “Are you 100 percent okay with this?”
“No,” he replies, “I eat the same as any other practice I do. I drive a car.”<\/p>\n
tomorrow?<\/p>\n
restaurant. Which is totally fine. But I’m trying to prevent it. I’m trying to
prevent it so we can do this. People tend to wait wait wait until the last
moment and then freak out. Let’s freak out just a touch more right now.<\/p>\n
takes a lot of time. “You cannot just stop learning about it,” he insists.<\/p>\n
Japanese publications on sustainability and Trenor reads English sources. They
talk three times a week to share what they’ve learned.<\/p>\n
sustainable, can’t understand Japanese aversion to sustainable sushi: “The reality is, if you really read the history of sushi,
tuna actually was not in there, [nor] toro, unagi … I’m basically going back to
what traditional is. They didn’t have a huge fleet of boats.”<\/p>\n
(“They’d kill me with a knife”), Sato hopes to promote sustainable sushi and
bring more chefs into the fold. He understands the difficulties of switching to
and finding sustainable fish, but he’s willing to share his experience and
support those who face the same hardships.<\/p>\n
for 15 years, which is really tough. They sometimes helped me out when I was in
financial trouble,” he says. He went from having four or five distributors to
nearly 20 in order to fill out his menu.
He sees this as a plus for his diners, giving them choices far beyond
the standard fare. “There’s so many
other fish. But some people don’t get that,” he says. Sato recommends diners
relax and expand their tastes. “Today eat this, tomorrow eat that. It’s good
for the ecosystem, economy, everything.”<\/p>\n
affordable for everyone. He’s kept his prices low and his sushi delicious, but
his philosophy has changed to something he calls egocentric: “I’d like to keep
my business longer than the next five years.”<\/p>\n
ability to eat them in the future is up to the consumer. He hopes we choose
wisely.<\/p>\n
area, bring Trenor’s book with you to your favorite restaurant, the grocery
store, the fish market. Ask questions.<\/p>\n
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