Sustainable Sushi Strains Couples in Therapy

In case you missed this from an article in the New York Times the other day titled “Therapists Report Increase in Green Disputes”: Mr. Fleming, who says he became committed to Ms. Cobb “before her high-priestess phase,” describes their conflicts as good-natured — mostly. But he refuses to go out to eat sushi with her anymore,…

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Tuna in Trouble

If Atlantic bluefin tuna becomes an endangered species, that’s big news. That will wake a lot of people up. There I go, quoting myself again, this time from an AP article that’s been running on ABC News and numerous other outlets: “Sushi-Loving Japan Fears Push for Tuna Export Ban.” This is a difficult issue, because…

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Lobster Side Dish: Bricks, or Oysters?

Bricks are not delicious. Oysters are delicious. Both are heavy. Heaviness is what you need for a lobster trap to sink to the bottom of the sea and stay there. When I worked as a lobsterboat crewman in Maine, numerous winter days were spent outfitting new traps with heavy bricks. But the lobstermen pictured above, who are…

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Merry Christmas, from Karen and Daisy

Karen: So what’s this big news, then? Daisy: We’ve been given our parts in the nativity play. And I’m the lobster. Karen: The lobster? Daisy: Yeah! Karen: In the nativity play? Daisy: Yeah, first lobster. Karen: There was more than one lobster present at the birth of Jesus? Daisy: Duh. —Love Actually

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Lobster in Blue

This was the lonely last soul in the tank at a seafood restaurant at the South Street Seaport in New York City on Sunday. I’m all for eating lobster, but this fellow (or lady) pulls even my heart strings.

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Wild Vermont Lobster

Ran across Les Hook and Nova Kim from the “northeast Kingdom of Vermont” at the New Amsterdam Market in New York yesterday. I did a double-take when I saw the packages marked “Wild Vermont Lobster.” Ain’t no ocean there, folks. Of course, what they were selling was “lobster” mushrooms, harvested by hand and dried. Does anyone…

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The Ultimate in Sustainable Sushi Might Just Be … Chicken

In The Story of Sushi I write about one of the first female sushi chefs to graduate from the California Sushi Academy–Tracy Griffith, actress, singer, and half-sister of Melanie Griffith. Here’s the beginning of the section about Tracy in the book: A feisty redhead, Tracy had gotten to the point in her film career where…

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Lobster Claw Stiletto Booties

The world needs fantasy, not reality. We have enough reality today. Fashion designer Alexander McQueen, commenting in the New York Times Magazine on his ’lobster claw stiletto booties’ The magazine reports: During Paris fashion week in October, Alexander McQueen sent down the runway lobster-claw ankle booties that were the highest, and probably the strangest, shoes we…

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How Fish Cheese Can Solve Our Carp Problem

The New York Times reports that Asian carp – “a mammoth, voracious, non-native conqueror among fish” – are invading and conquering the Mississippi river system and now the Great Lakes. Funny, just like how sushi conquered the Midwest. So I have a solution. Make the carp into sushi. Freshwater carp sushi is the original form…

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Bluefin Tuna: Tigers of the Sea

This a slide from the A/V presentation that I show with my lectures. I tell the audience a bit about the amazing bluefin tuna, and then explain what is happening with the overfishing of this majestic beast, and then I ask, “Would you eat a tiger burger?”

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