Posts by Trevor Corson
New Hipster Look: The Lobstersexual
Now that today’s hipster look as been classified as “lumbersexual,” some folks in Maine see their coastal fishing culture as inspiration for a new hipster look, the “lobstersexual.” Hope it catches on. I can dust off the old orange rubber overalls I used to wear to work everyday and show them off around Brooklyn (as…
Read More“It would seem better that he avoid eating lobster than that he be analyzed”
Psychoanalyst Leo Stone, concerned about the proliferation of psychoanalysis for the solving of seemingly every sort of personal problem in New York City in the 1950s and ‘60s, wrote: “If a man is otherwise healthy, happy, and efficient, and his rare attacks of headache can be avoided by not eating lobster, for example, it would…
Read MoreSustainable Sushi
Something to chew on: If we’re not careful with the ocean’s fish, all our sushi may end up looking … like this. Which isn’t to say that I’m not huge fan of these gorgeous veggie nigiri (which I gobbled up during a stop at Beyond Sushi). Think of it this way: if you go veggie when…
Read MoreEnjoy the Plentiful Lobster Rolls While They Last
“Maine baby lobster decline could mean end to record catches as lobstermen, scientists worry” said an AP report this week. This AP file photo (credit: Robert F. Bukaty) shows one of the thousands of baby lobsters counted every year along the Maine coast by dedicated teams of wetsuit-clad marine biologists, including the scientists I write about in The…
Read MoreWorld’s Most Elegant Doggie Bag
As much as I admire sushi, the ultimate Japanese dining experience is probably kaiseki. A kind of small-dish tasting menu, kaiseki combines the elegance of Japan’s ancient courtly cuisine with the simplicity of Buddhist temple fare (and often includes both small sashimi and sushi courses). The goal of kaiseki is to highlight the natural taste of ingredients…
Read MoreHow Tuna Should be Caught
Below is a clip from a new documentary called Sushi: The Global Catch opening in New York City this weekend. Some of the most touching parts of the film for me were these scenes from a remote fishing village called Oma on the northernmost tip of Japan’s main island, where a white-haired curmudgeon named Hirofumi Hambata,…
Read MoreThe Global Catch
It’s hard to believe there was a time when most Americans would rather eat a tuna sandwich than sushi. Or watch Ultraman instead of Iron Man. As a kid in the seventies I probably started watching Ultraman around the same time I started eating canned fish between slices of bread. Both were a low-budget half-mechanized sort of sustenance. Japanese…
Read MoreSushi, USA
Cool: the other day Anthony Bourdain retweeted some of my sushi etiquette tips. Inevitable: amidst many positive responses, I got some others suggesting that perhaps such attention to detail was a tad elitist. Irony: I totally sympathize. Food snobbery is exactly what I was hoping to avoid when I decided to focus my book The Story of Sushi on…
Read MoreJapan Is So Quirky
Can you believe the Japanese still use fax machines—lots of them? How come they haven’t switched to email like the rest of the modernized world? It’s mainly because their language and culture are so unique, according to an amused headline this week in the Washington Post. Those Japanese are so quirky. We love “Japan is so quirky”…
Read MoreCelebrating Authentic Asian Cuisine
Jump to photo album. We hosted a sold-out special edition historical sushi dinner this week as a sort of “amuse-bouche” to preview the 2012 LuckyRice Food Festival, featuring authentic culinary traditions from all over Asia. At the dinner I gave a presentation on some of the most surprising twists and turns in sushi history–a few interesting pieces…
Read More