leeper@mtgzz.UUCP (m.r.leeper) (10/20/85)
THE SUSHI HANDBOOK by Kenji Kumusai
Heian International, 1983, $?.
A book review by Mark R. Leeper
THE SUSHI HANDBOOK is much like a piece of sushi itself. It is small--
about 90 pages--it is carefully put together with attention to detail, and
it is often surprising to an American. The reader comes away with a better
feel for the simplicity and requirement for perfection in that simplicity
that is an entirely different approach to making food than we have in this
country.
If we had that philosophy, every time you went to McDonald's you would
be served your hamburger at the table. It would come with the top bun off.
You would spend the first minutes admiring the top bun. It would be a
network of golden-brown points on a white background. There would be no
points darker than golden-brown. The catsup and mustard would be on the
patty in perfectly circular patterns. The pickle would have the cucumber
peel removed by hand. It too would be symmetrically placed dead center on
the patty. The patty itself would be hand-formed but would be of absolutely
uniform thickness to within a quarter-inch of the edge. The edge would be
rounded in a curve that is pleasing to the eye. Placing the top bun on the
burger, you would note that it was a perfectly rounded dome without a sign
of a bend or crease and certainly no cracks in the crust. The fries would
lie next to the hamburger, each cut from the potato to an identical length.
There would be potato skin at each end so that the eater would know that
they were not just hacked to the proper length, but were that length in the
original potato. They would be a uniform color and straight as arrows.
There would be exactly eight of them; more would be garish. They would be
stacked in a four-wide, two-high matrix. The price of the platter would be
$17.95.
A Westerner tends to feel that the Japanese are into simple art. They
like bamboo paintings that are done with a few sparse brush-strokes. It is
easy for a Westerner to confuse the Japanese philosophy with a love of
simplicity. In fact, they seem to have a love of complexity in even simple
things. Differences in sushi that the Westerner is oblivious to could make
a great deal of difference to a tsu--a real sushi expert. Supposedly one
characteristic of a perfect piece of sushi--the impossible dream--is that
all the rice grains line up parallel to each other. The argument that it
all gets mixed up in your stomach anyway is clearly an American argument and
would not impress a tsu.
THE SUSHI HANDBOOK gives the reader a quick introduction to some very,
very picayune details to look for as well as some not so picayune. It gives
the reader a way to impress your friends and the waitress and the vocabulary
to describe sushi using the Japanese terms. It is the most complete source
I have seen on the subject.
Mark R. Leeper
...ihnp4!mtgzz!leeper