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Sushi From necessity to ubiquity

27 September 2021

Detail from Utagawa Hiroshige’s [Amusements While Waiting for the Moon on the Night of the Twenty-sixth in Takanawa, showing sushi stalls serving tourists

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Portrait of Eric Rath
Eric Rath
The California Roll was only the beginning. Or at least, the beginning of global domination. Back in the mid 1980s, when I made a documentary for BBC TV about disgust and learned food habits, we chose sushi as our exemplar of the Westerner’s idea of hard-to-understand foods. Raw fish. Cold rice. Seaweed. What’s to like? If I had known then of the rich history of sushi, I’m sure we could have made even more of its strange 1980s incarnation.

Eric Rath’s history of sushi traces the word back to its origins as a method of preserving fish through many twists and turns to today, when sushi means almost anything you want it to mean.

Notes

  1. Eric Rath’s book Oishii: The History of Sushi is published by Reaktion Books. It contains recipes old and new, in case you want to try making sushi at home.
  2. National Geographic surprised me with this article in early September: These popular tuna species are no longer endangered, surprising scientists.
  3. A popular culture view of modern sushi that I did not mention, precisely because it lives up to all possible stereotypes, is the amazing sequence in Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs. Almost more astonishing is the dedication that went into making it.
  4. Here is the transcript, thanks to the generosity of the show’s supporters.
  5. The banner image is a detail from Utagawa Hiroshige’s Amusements While Waiting for the Moon on the Night of the Twenty-sixth in Takanawa, which dates from the 1820s, with thanks to the British Museum (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). The cover image is a detail from Bowl of Sushi, also by Hiroshige. I have not been able to date it.

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13 thoughts on Sushi From necessity to ubiquity

  • Aaron Davis commented 3 years ago.

    Another dive into the history of food. As seems to often be the case, what we appreciate as sushi today is in stark difference to the practices of preserving fish in the past.

    I think the takeaway here is that sushi is a global cuisine, and what people do in Peru or Brazil, all these different types of sushi are equally as valid and that’s the amazing thing. We shouldn’t turn our noses up at the sushi bagel, or the sushi pizza, or whatever is new. It’s just all part of sushi’s long story. – Eric Rath
    @eatpodcast https://www.eatthispodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/sushi-transcript.pdf

    Reply
  • AgroBioDiverse mentioned this post 3 years ago.

    With all due respect, I think this eatthispodcast.com/sushi/ from @EatPodcast is a much better podcast about #sushi. But by all means listen to both and make up your own mind.

    Reply
  • KC Tomato commented 3 years ago.

    Kansas for info on seafood and Japanese culture. 😏




    Reply
  • AgroBioDiverse commented 3 years ago.

    Latest episode now up, talking to Eric Rath of @UnivOfKansas about the long and varied history of sushi.

    eatthispodcast.com/sushi/

    Reply
  • Jess Fanzo mentioned this post 3 years ago.

    I love Jeremy’s podcasts. Looking forward to digging into this one on one of my favorite ways to eat #bluefoods!

    Reply

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Eat This Podcast has been going since March 2013. That’s a long time in podcast world. In that time, it has twice been nominated for a James Beard Award, although it remains a labour of love rather than a search for glory.

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