Let’s face it, your average sushi plate is about as vapid as
a fistful of colourful pills wrapped in papery seaweed. Reliably
available, uniformly identical, cut up, cubed, it tastes as stolid as
any other fast food. Somewhere in our rush to be healthy, fish stopped
being fish and became a product.
Tony Soprano loved his sushi. Ghostface Killah was all about the
Fishscales. Industry people in Halifax can’t stop themselves. They call
fish “product” all the time. Every gangster knows there is no easy way
to wean consumers off product and, right now, mass-market sushi has us
riding a 64-piece sashimi boat to hell.
“Our name is Hamachi, yellowtail tuna. It’s on the avoid list,” says
Leanne Christie, Manager of the Dartmouth Hamachi Grill & Sushi
House. She’s fully aware of the irony, but her road is paved with good
intentions.
This week—the same week Sea Choice and the Ecology Action Centre
released their first rating guide to sustainable sushi—the Hamachi
chain of restaurants started offering sustainable seafood specials.
It’s a tandem promotion. A phone call two months ago from Sea Choice
took Christie’s job on this new tangent. “It’s a unique challenge,” she
admits, “no one has broken ground on this one. It is tough.”
For the last two months, her crew worked daily to source new
products for 10 new feature dishes incorporating sustainable seafoods
such as Albacore tuna, Atlantic hook and line striped bass and salmon
from Loch Duart in Scotland.
Quality and consistent supply are her biggest considerations. None
of these 10 items will be on the regular menu, items Christie says,
until they are 100 percent reliably sourced. And that is where the
product erasure breaks down, because wild fish are not widgets.
“The trick,” says the Ecology Action Centre’s Susanna Fuller (she
worked on the Sea Choice Guide), when it comes to local, sustainable
options, is that “really, with the exception of lobster, there’s
nothing that’s fished year round.”
The Sea Choice guide rates fish in a red, yellow and green stoplight
system that looks simple, but once you stick your toe in the water,
sustainable seafood has little moral clarity.
If food miles concern you, positive choices like British Columbian
scallops and spot prawns or Mexican shrimp might be problematic. But,
Christie says, unagi (freshwater eel) and saba (mackerel) are processed
in Hong Kong, shipped to Vancouver, repacked in Toronto and sent here
by truck all the time. By comparison, BC products are good.
While there are sustainable models in aquaculture, as much bad
farming as good takes place in Canada. Atlantic farmed salmon is one of
the most egregious examples of unsustainability, filling up cheap,
low-end sushi plates across the continent. Flip side: they keep many
Nova Scotian communities afloat.
Another exception: Fuller says local bluefin tuna (yes, the species
on the verge of collapse) is OK sometimes. “Rod-and-reel tuna is OK
locally,” she says, but only because in “NS, PEI and NB we do have a
rod-and-reel fishery for tuna and most other places don’t have
that.”
When it comes to making consumer choices, “it’s not 100 percent or
nothing,” Fuller asserts quickly, “but making the effort and having
that on the table, having sustainable options on the menu and marking
them as such is a good idea. And it doesn’t mean you can’t have the
other fish.”
Compared to the organic agriculture movement, Fuller believes the
seafood industry has a long way to go to be as effectively sustainable.
Nick Budreski, a middleman who owns a small distribution company,
agrees. He thinks consumers must be willing to pay 10 to 20 percent
more to eat sustainable seafood.
“In this kind of market and this kind of economy, it’s difficult to
preach,” he says. “All you can really do is just spend what you can
within the limits of what you can, with what your morals are.”
It’s a hard reality. As for me, as much as I love sushi, I try to
stick to classic Japanese ribstickers like donburis or noodle soups.
Sushi needs to become a special occasion again.
Over the next month, Sea Choice wants to provide menu
options to restaurants around HRM. If you are a sushi roller, contact
seachoice.org.
This article appears in Apr 30 – May 6, 2009.
Frozen BC wild pink salmon was on sale recently at the supermarket; and it was really cheap too. “Great!”, I thought, I’ll be able to afford it for a change, I’ll just try to ignore it had traveled all the way across Canada to get to my plate. (after all, that’s the only place it comes from, that’s justifiable!)
The affordable frozen fillet had been all the way around the world! It left the BC coast, went across the great Pacific Ocean to somewhere in China for processing, then an even longer trip to some place in Ontario for individual packaging and Canadian labeling, then it finally ended up in our Atlantic coast local market deli freezer. I couldn’t buy it, now it was no longer justifiable.
Finally, a reality check for these pro-sustainable fish fools, it aint gonna happen, this was the first step to more people waking up and realizing that. Stop eating 99% of the fish you like or forget about this sustainable shit, seriously, and its getting fucking enjoying. Have you seen our sustainable, trap caught N.S. shrimp? they are as small as Icelandic baby shrimp, pathetic. I know its great to be able to pretend you care about fish stocks declining and the marine environment, but it is exaggerated greatly and is totally unrealistic. By the time all these species are supposedly going to become extinct, we will have far greater fish farms that are technologically advanced, eco friendly and diverse beyond our imagination. Get over yourselves seal huggers.
Is eating quality Sushi 3x a month unsustainable? Considering I don’t eat red meat or fast food, I highly doubt it. And though I won’t change my sushi-eating habits, I will certainly look for sustainable options from Hamachi if they are available. And now I’m craving a spicy Alaska Roll, damn!
ps. Hamachi, I am seriously in love with your house salad’s ginger dressing. I’m convinced it could make cardboard taste good. Don’t ever change it! Although, more egg and tomato would be appreciated and it’s a little $$$$$ for iceberg lettuce.
@porkrump, I think you’ll find the sustainable people are pretty reasonable. At least, I hope they came across that way in this article, because in my experience they seem to be aiming towards realistic, achievable goals. Nothing will change overnight. @Quinpool, I think you’re right, there is no single solid path of righteousness. I will definitely continue to eat quality sushi, as well; maybe less often than before, but I eat lots of meats. Anyway, chefs and consumers trying out new options is better than how the system works now. I would love to see more local adaptations & interpretations in local sushi, instead of the same ole same ole. It would only make our food scene more unique.