"The Raw Truth" - Wall Street Journal Article

[Jacques Gastreaux]

In the weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal, there is a big article on where sushi restaurnants get their "fresh" fish. There is also is a a chart listing the top 50 sushi restaurnts in the US, which includes a handful from the DC area. According to the chart, Kaz Sushi Bistro, Makoto, Sushi Taro and Tako Grill all get at least some of their fish from "Yama Seafood." Sushi Ko uses "six suppliers, including a fisherman-broker in Chatham, Mass." I'd provide a link to the article but it is password protected and available only to online subscribers. The gist of the article appears to be that most sushi restaurants get their fish from the same limited number of suppliers such that differences in freshness and quality from one place to the another are likely to be negligible.

[CrescentFresh]

In the weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal, there is a big article on where sushi restaurnants get their "fresh" fish.  There is also is a a chart listing the top 50 sushi restaurnts in the US, which includes a handful from the DC area.  According to the chart, Kaz Sushi Bistro, Makoto, Sushi Taro and Tako Grill all get at least some of their fish from "Yama Seafood."  Sushi Ko uses "six suppliers, including a fisherman-broker in Chatham, Mass."  I'd provide a link to the article but it is password protected and available only to online subscribers.  The gist of the article appears to be that most sushi restaurants get their fish from the same limited number of suppliers such that differences in freshness and quality from one place to the another are likely to be negligible.

This is probably the makings of another thread, but I absolutely love the food and wine info in the weekend Wall Street Journal. I think it's top notch. Very limited in content each week, but between food, wine, service, restaurants, shopping and books, I think it's intelligent coverage and very broad in scale from upper echelon restaurants to simple burger joints. They cover stuff from most every price point.

[lackadaisi]

The gist of the article appears to be that most sushi restaurants get their fish from the same limited number of suppliers such that differences in freshness and quality from one place to the another are likely to be negligible.

I have not read the article, but it seems that there is a break in analysis in the conclusion that because the suppliers are the same, the difference in freshness and quality of the fish at each restaurant is likely to be negligible.

(1) Do the suppliers reserve thier best and freshest cuts for certain restaurants, or do certain restaurants pay more for better cuts?

(2) Even if the fish supplied was of equal quality and freshness, different restaurants may use different methods to store the fish and may store it for varying time periods before offering it to the consumer.

[Jacques Gastreaux]

Of course differences in freshness will occur once the fish is delivered. But:

In our survey of 50 top sushi restaurants (see chart), single pieces of yellowtail ranged from $2 at Suehiro in Salt Lake City to $5 at Morimoto. But unlike tuna, which comes from all over the world and varies in color and fat content, yellowtail generally used in sushi is quite uniform. Chefs and vendors say that nearly all yellowtail used in sushi is farm-raised in Japan. Star sushi chef Masaharu Morimoto, who recently expanded from Philadelphia to New York, agrees, but says that his is fresher than other restaurants may be able to buy because he gets shipments from Japan four times a week. (He says he also uses buri, a kind of wild yellowtail, on the rare occasions when he can get it.)

[Michael Landrum]

This is probably the makings of another thread, but I absolutely love the food and wine info in the weekend Wall Street Journal.  I think it's top notch.  Very limited in content each week, but between food, wine, service, restaurants, shopping and books, I think it's intelligent coverage and very broad in scale from upper echelon restaurants to simple burger joints.  They cover stuff from most every price point.

Their recent article on beef and steakhouses was sloppy, inaccurate, misinformed and misinforming, and uncritically parroted the deceptions and obfuscations that the large steakhouses use to overcharge and cheat their guests. Perhaps they had a member of the editorial staff write the piece given the special nature of the cattle grower/lobbyist/steakhouse/politcian axis of banality.

[Lydia R]

There is also is a a chart listing the top 50 sushi restaurnts in the US, which includes a handful from the DC area.

The chart JG mentioned upthread is very interesting and would drive most to their neighborhood newsstand to purchase a copy of the paper. What I found interesting was the number of sushi places that use local fishmongers.

Yup, the WSJ is a great paper and it reaches far beyond the assumed boundries of their "Wall Street" beat. In addition to Food/Wine coverage, there are several columns written by my personal hero, Walter Mossberg, a DC-based technology writer (never met, but he's saved me money and my tech-sanity).

[jparrott]

My favorite little sushi parlor, Kiyo's in the Gaslamp district of San Diego, uses a combination of suppliers and Kiyo's own afternoon runs to the piers. His mantra (as stated to me in the midst of yet another endless, riffing sushi-bitch experience)--"I don't care what's leftover, I can find something to do with it. I buy moooooooooooooore fish!"

[Lydia R]

About a month ago, WSJ had an article also about restaurants sourcing protein that made me think of Michael Landrum. It began:

Restaurants

Why Some Chefs Are Having a Cow

Enough with heirloom veggies. Now restaurateurs are breeding their own meat

By KATY MCLAUGHLIN

February 25, 2006; Page P1

For chefs, getting their hands on the best meat and poultry is one of the biggest challenges, one that pits them against the seasons and competing restaurants. But David Burke, who is opening a steakhouse in Chicago next month, has figured out a way to control his fate: He's breeding his own livestock.

Copyright © 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Michael -- maybe this is how you're planning to spend your hiatus.

Looking forward to the "no steak left behind" dinner tonight.

Edited to: correct for pre-RTS dinner giddiness

[MeMc]

Speaking of fresh fish, did anyone read the article by Bill Buford in the New Yorker about the guy who supplies the oysters to Le Bernardin? It's in this week's that I got yesterday.

[StephenB]

I read The New Yorker piece with avid interest. I was particularly interested in the controversy between the slurpers and the chewers. This is a subject that has occupied me and some of my friends for years. The purists, including the people in Buford's piece, seem to think that slurping (swallowing whole) is better but even they confess to two or three quick bites in order to liberate the flavor and incidentally to prevent a living entity from occupying their stomach. My practice has been to slurp at least two out of every dozen. The proper way to do this is demonstrated by Edward G. Robinson in "The Cincinatti Kid."

Buford also calls attention to the importance of the liquid -- the briny mixture of seawater and oyster excretion. This is their statement of origin, their pedigree. So many people who enjoy oysters don't bother with the liquid.

I like my oysters with a sprinkle of lemon juice or perhaps a dash of vinegar. Buford doesn't go into sauces but the less said about that horrible tomato stuff the better.

I love the part about how it's better to coax an oyster to relax its muscle when shucking, rather than going in with brute force.