# Sushi is not a fucking lifestyle, you idiots. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 2, 2007, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sushi-is-not-a-fucking-lifestyle-you-idiots/406459 "2007-06-02T05:36:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![brownie55](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f14d63/32.png) [@brownie55](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brownie55)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2007, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sushi-is-not-a-fucking-lifestyle-you-idiots/406459/121 "2007-06-04T17:50:23Z")
[QUOTE=Sapo] God, I know I am going to regret clicking that link. I better save it for later. ETA: Couldn’t wait. Let’s just say that “sperm” and “tsunami” should not go together in a sentence. Least one about food. [/QUOTE] That’s “tsumami” (snack). ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2007, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sushi-is-not-a-fucking-lifestyle-you-idiots/406459/122 "2007-06-04T17:56:22Z")
[QUOTE=brownie55] That’s “tsumami” (snack). [/QUOTE] What did you smack me for?! ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2007, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sushi-is-not-a-fucking-lifestyle-you-idiots/406459/123 "2007-06-04T18:57:15Z")
I find that, occasionally, folks who enjoy fast food and barbeque feel somehow threatened by other types of cuisine. I used to work someplace where just being a vegetarian was weird enough. If someone asked me where I went for lunch, I’d get openmouthed stares. Look, I like sushi, curries, and channa masala because they taste awesome to me, not because I’m a poseur. If Kraft Mac’n’Cheese and potato soup with boiled bacon dance on your tongue the way that most of my ‘exotic’ food choices do for me, more power to ya. Heck, when I first moved here, people gave me the googly eye if I asked them where the nearest bagel store is and where I could get some hummus. Times they are a’changin’. (I will admit that I will occasionally think to myself that I liked hummus ‘before it was cool’. Not because I was a foodie, because I was about ten years old, but because we lived next door to an awesome Lebanese family. We were the only neighbors who would talk to them, so we did several dinners together and played with their kid. This was when you had to go to a special store to get pita bread and tahini. We got treated like the weird when we brought it to school, and I’m sure people thought it was pretension. For me, it was just good eats!) ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2007, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sushi-is-not-a-fucking-lifestyle-you-idiots/406459/124 "2007-06-04T19:57:43Z")
Last night I made ahi poke for the first time at home. Talk about a tounguegasm. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2007, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sushi-is-not-a-fucking-lifestyle-you-idiots/406459/125 "2007-06-04T20:21:32Z")
[QUOTE=Chimera] Ok, ok, I’ve looked at that thread title floating out there for several days without reading the thread. Ain’t going to do that now. I apologize if it’s already been done, probably somewhere on page one, but I gotta do it anyway or I’ll explode. “Sushi is not a fucking lifestyle, you idiots” At least not for the fish. [/QUOTE] Nope, it hasn’t been done. And thanks for the laugh. ---
**Author:** ![Ghanima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Ghanima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ghanima)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2007, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sushi-is-not-a-fucking-lifestyle-you-idiots/406459/126 "2007-06-04T21:03:36Z")
I love my sushi lifestyle. Mmmmm, SASHIMI. Best stuff ever. Hamachi is so Good, like a tonguegasm in your mouth, grasshopper. The sushi lifestyle Is not pretentious. Oh no, it is delicious. Luckily, I am going out for sushi tonight and can feed my intense cravings. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2007, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sushi-is-not-a-fucking-lifestyle-you-idiots/406459/127 "2007-06-04T22:30:28Z")
[QUOTE=Miller] Just curious, but do these people also wear pastel suits, polo shirts with the collar turned up, and sneakers with no socks? Because I have a lot of trouble imaging anyone who still thinks eating sushi is “avant-garde” who hasn’t been frozen in a block of ice for the last twenty years. [/QUOTE] I agree… this sounds like the rant of a bad comic in 1985. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2007, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sushi-is-not-a-fucking-lifestyle-you-idiots/406459/128 "2007-06-04T23:34:02Z")
Ironically\*, I think this thread has served to increase sushi sales. I, too, am craving sushi now. \*[sub]Okay, so it’s probably the Alanis Morrisette definition.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2007, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sushi-is-not-a-fucking-lifestyle-you-idiots/406459/129 "2007-06-04T23:39:52Z")
What? Next I suppose you’re going to tell me it isn’t a political movement, either. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2007, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sushi-is-not-a-fucking-lifestyle-you-idiots/406459/130 "2007-06-04T23:41:59Z")
Give me fissshhh _now_, and don’t ssssspoil it with the nassssty red tonguesssss… ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2007, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sushi-is-not-a-fucking-lifestyle-you-idiots/406459/131 "2007-06-04T23:44:31Z")
[QUOTE=Intravenus De Milo] And if I’m really hungry, I’ll order something more filling every time. If there’s one thing sushi is not, it’s filling. [/QUOTE] You needn’t even make this concession. A bowl of rice with, maybe a salad before, and sushi or sashimi is plenty filling. ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sushi-is-not-a-fucking-lifestyle-you-idiots/406459/132 "2007-06-05T00:59:06Z")
[QUOTE=Miller] Just curious, but do these people also wear pastel suits, polo shirts with the collar turned up, and sneakers with no socks? Because I have a lot of trouble imaging anyone who still thinks eating sushi is “avant-garde” who hasn’t been frozen in a block of ice for the last twenty years. [/QUOTE] Truly. Many of the customers in the bar I frequent are construction workers who belly up to the bar still wearing their canvas Carhartt jackets. A lot of families. A few wannabe hipster types, and some professionals. Probably I see more families than anything. Mostly, people at a restaurant enjoying good food and sake bombs on a Friday night. ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sushi-is-not-a-fucking-lifestyle-you-idiots/406459/133 "2007-06-05T10:03:43Z")
[QUOTE=CairoCarol] Um…apparently I may be guilty of spreading the very ignorance this site is dedicated to fighting. :eek: [/QUOTE] I know this thread seems to (thankfully) be winding down, but I wanted to indulge in linguistic trivia. _Sashimi_ comes from the verb _sasu_ (to stab/skewer) and the noun _mi_ (flesh). Technically, “cut flesh” would be a literal translation. However, in usage, it’s only used to refer to a particular dish of sliced raw fish, seafood, or more rarely meat, that is dipped in soy sauce. In Buddhist temple cooking, there is vegeterian sashimi, but it’s not common in other contexts. And yes, chicken sashimi is real. It tastes just like chicken. Raw chicken. ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sushi-is-not-a-fucking-lifestyle-you-idiots/406459/134 "2007-06-05T13:55:24Z")
[QUOTE=Intravenus De Milo] this came out of my fondness for carpaccio (very quickly seared, very rare beef) more than anything else. [/QUOTE] Cooked carpaccio? Is that some sort of US thing? I’ve only ever encountered it in an unapologetically raw state. Thin slices of totally uncooked beef, untainted by any cooking process, maybe with a squeeze of lemon juice over it. Yummy. Just like sushi, which is also yummy, but not necessarily raw. Now if only I could figure out what was in those funny rubbery round sweet things they serve as dessert… ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sushi-is-not-a-fucking-lifestyle-you-idiots/406459/135 "2007-06-05T14:27:54Z")
[QUOTE=fluiddruid] (I will admit that I will occasionally think to myself that I liked hummus ‘before it was cool’. [/QUOTE] How can hummus be pretentious? It’s just bean dip, for crying out loud! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_chao_goes_mu/32/3191_2.png) [@The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Chao_Goes_Mu)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sushi-is-not-a-fucking-lifestyle-you-idiots/406459/136 "2007-06-05T14:43:44Z")
Damn, this thread is making me crave sushi! Just two years ago I made the step from cooked fish to the uncooked. I absolutlely loved it. It was tuna and salmon. Oh dear Og who knew it could be so wonderful?! Granted, I approached it with a “through the teeth, over the gum, look out stomach, here it comes” attitude, thinking it would be utter shite. The concept of raw fish just seemed like an abomination. Raw beef; wonderful. Raw fish; great og no. Consider me a convert. I really went for it the last time my friends and I went to the Japanese restaurant down the road. We tried the raw squid. My friends didn’t care for it because of the texture and the fact that it sort of secretes a milky substance when you chew it. Me? Wow. Loved it. Talk about a tonguegasm! I’ll be in my breakfast nook for a while. ---
**Author:** ![Merkwurdigliebe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/74df32/32.png) [@Merkwurdigliebe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merkwurdigliebe)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sushi-is-not-a-fucking-lifestyle-you-idiots/406459/137 "2007-06-05T15:05:03Z")
Haha, I never really “didn’t get” sushi because I’d never really seen it before I had tried it. I knew it involved raw fish somehow, but that was it. I had it for the firs time, I think in my college cafeteria at 19 years old! My kids are going to think I’m so old-fashioned! I remember when my parents told me that they had never tried pizza until they had gone to college. ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sushi-is-not-a-fucking-lifestyle-you-idiots/406459/138 "2007-06-05T16:06:17Z")
[QUOTE=slaphead] Cooked carpaccio? Is that some sort of US thing? I’ve only ever encountered it in an unapologetically raw state. Thin slices of totally uncooked beef, untainted by any cooking process, maybe with a squeeze of lemon juice over it. Yummy. Just like sushi, which is also yummy, but not necessarily raw. Now if only I could figure out what was in those funny rubbery round sweet things they serve as dessert… [/QUOTE] Yup, I have often encountered this abomination in US restaurants. They sear the outside of it. Ends up being like some weird caricature of a roast beef. Not pretty. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sushi-is-not-a-fucking-lifestyle-you-idiots/406459/139 "2007-06-05T16:33:50Z")
I’ve never been a fan. And, if you know me. . .I’m a fan of everything. There’s not a cuisine, or a ethnic food, or an oddity I won’t eat. But, I’m gonna pay more for a few small pieces of raw salmon or tuna than to have a professional chef actually put together a meal made with a nice filet cut from the same fish? A meal that actually uses salt and pepper, and butter. . .those things that people (like the French, but what do they know about cooking) use to actually enhance and compliment the flavor of fish. Oh, and doesn’t everyone just love to say, “well, you just haven’t had good sushi”? Yeah, I have. I’ve had it in New York. I’ve had it in LA. I’ve had in in LA with my friend from Baltimore who used to tell me, “you don’t like it because we can’t get good sushi here. Wait till we try this place in LA.” I’ve had it in Oregon prepared by a fellow Korean student who bought the salmon from the guy who caught it. IMHO, anyone who thinks a raw piece of tuna has anything on a properly seared piece of tuna with olive oil, salt and pepper is crazy. Can it be a nice dining experience? Sure. It’s nice preparation. Sushi joints are usually calm and friendly. You get to see them prepare the food. There’s a nice variety to what you get. But, outside of some of the rolls these places put together, I have no respect for the food itself. Even ceviche has had some thought go into it. ---
**Author:** ![Grossbottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ba8739/32.png) [@Grossbottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grossbottom)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sushi-is-not-a-fucking-lifestyle-you-idiots/406459/140 "2007-06-05T17:50:45Z")
Yeah, man. And I hate those people who empty out their Pixie Sticks out between two pieces of bread, add Cap’n Crunch and eat it like a sandwich. Let’s do the 90s next. Grilling salmon on planks is not a lifestyle, you pretentious fucks, and you can stuff those chipotles right up your ass. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sushi-is-not-a-fucking-lifestyle-you-idiots/406459.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sushi-is-not-a-fucking-lifestyle-you-idiots/406459.md?page=8)