This evening I had what I'll call the great sushi dilemma (thanks, Michael Pollan). Cut to my usual sushi dinner at Sushi Tomi on Dana Street, at which I have had the same order once a week for 4 years: regular chirashi with no suzuki (seabass) and a lunch size beer. It's consistently fabulous, featuring old faves like salmon, egg omelet and seaweed salad and I know I like it. So this evening, my favorite waitress was shocked when I told her I wanted to try something different. I was curious about the chef's special--for $35 the chef brings you ten pieces, most of which had names I did not recognize. Shoot, I'm feeling adventurous! Why the hell not?
The chef lays this plate in front of me with ten glistening gorgeous pieces of sushi and tells me what each one is. I am so engrossed with my plate of food I am only half listening. Blah blah giant clam...blah blah snapper...
and these two at the end here are bluefin tuna.
I love tuna, I really do. I have shamelessly proclaimed my love for diner tuna melts, made with canned Albacore, and my usual sushi order comes with albacore or yellowfin. Needless to say, this kind would be a new experience.
The first piece was spectacular and dissolved like butter in my mouth. So this was the fish that was prized by ancient Mediterranean fishermen.
I mean this thing is built like a torpedo.
The second piece was from a different cut because it was marbled like roast beef and had a red meat texture, which, well, perturbed me. Mid-chew, this chain of images and panicked thoughts flashed through my head. See, that's when I remembered that blue fin is an endangered creature, at the top of the
Monterey Bay Aquarium's list of
red alert do not eat fishes. You can't so much tell from that photo, but bluefin are enormous, powerful beasts that are being fished to the brink of extinction. It's like eating a rhinoceros or a giant panda. Oh sweet chopsticks, I was eating a panda! I nearly barfed right there at the sushi bar. (This would have been especially embarrassing because after 4 years of eating at Sushi Tomi the sushi chef himself knows who I am. He noticed my new haircut! I'm just saying.)
What's that Simpsons gag where schoolyard bully Nelson has a spotted owl in a headlock, taunting between noogies, "Stop endangering yourself! Stop endangering yourself!" Seafood is so damn good and (despite me being a sometimes vegetarian) sushi in particular is one of my favorite treats. I want to kick the sushi counter and scream at the bluefin far away in the ocean, who I'm sure are not listening,
Nice one, you jerks. If you tasted like banana slugs, you wouldn't be over harvested, you stupid, stupid giant tuna!
But all kidding aside, that brings me to this idea about what it means to be a conscious consumers. When I was a little kid, no one knew about recycling, and then one day everyone was methodical about separating bottles and cans. I mean, the waste management in my folks' neighborhood now picks up food waste. It's wonderful. Or think about the organic food movement--ten years ago, organic produce was not on everyone's shopping list or even in our grocery stores. The only reason I even know not to eat bluefin in the first place is because I looked at a conservation website. Perhaps making wise, informed choices is one of the most responsible things you can do as a consumer.
And then there's the ethics of food. I couldn't swallow the bluefin nigiri only when I remembered that the animal was endangered. What makes us choose to eat something or not eat something for personal reasons? Case in point, once in awhile I'll order veal piccata in an Italian restaurant (read: once a year) but have refused to eat octopus ever since my dad gave me this whole spiel about how they're highly intelligent and are good to their partners or whatever (not that I was a huge octopus fan to begin with, so, yeah, it wasn't really a sacrifice). Someone else might be horrified at the plight of a young cow but not think twice about some squishy sea creature. And who is to say which should be worth more than the other one? I don't know...there is no right or wrong answer. The only answer that makes any sense to me is trying to be responsible in your choices, whatever that means to you.
Funny thing was, hands down the most delightful thing on that plate was the sardine sashimi with chopped scallion on top. Delicious. If I saw it on a menu again, I would order it, and I cannot say the same about bluefin, which I will continue to boycott. Also, I am smugly satisfied knowing that sardines multiply like crazy and are a sustainable choice. And I have to say, they really are beautiful in this photograph, aren't they?
So what's an omnivore to do?
