Hello friends. Stacie here, the other half of life, liberty and apple pie. I apologize for my absence. Katie, as usual, is more put-together than I could ever hope to be, and she has been posting to you, the internet world. You have been in great hands, and I am thankful to be Katie’s blog partner in crime, now ready to share my findings of food.
With our two years of Peace Corps finished, Katie and I are on opposite sides of the country trying to make sense again of modern American life. That’s what this blog is all about: writing and sharing our experiences from the East, West, North, South or the prairie lands of freedom. No matter where we rest our heads, we all have to eat.
Eating is what I have been doing since my return to the land of plenty. And what is more “modern, American eating” than sushi? Specifically, sushi in landlocked cities, like my hometown of Reno, Nevada. Reno not only has some of the cheapest sushi around, but it is all-you-can-eat-sushi. Yes, you read that correctly: all-you-can-eat-sushi. But before we dive into the subject, I would like to point out the geographical location of Reno in relation to the sea. Reno is NOT a beach front city, although many claim one day it will be due to the Calif. San Andres Fault Line, and yet there are more than 20 all-you-can-eat-sushi restaurants in the city.
Last week, I went to my favorite sushi restaurant in Reno for dinner, and for $23, I ordered as many long and hand rolls, miso soup and seaweed salad as I wanted for the time limit of one hour. Yes, most places have a time limit to keep casino-loving Grandma from camping out for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Don’t doubt that it hasn’t happened before.
As I sat there eating the restaurant namesake’s roll—the Jazmine with spicy crab, avocado, cooked scallop and crystal shrimp; the deep-fried Godzilla roll with yellowtail and salmon and bites of my boyfriend’s Nevada roll, a combo of tempura shrimp, seared tuna, avocado and cream cheese—I got to thinking about where the fish in my sushi came from. Was it caught from the ocean or was it raised on a farm? My mind wandered even more.
A delicious sushi roll from Jazmine Restaurant in Reno. Photo Courtsey of Jasminereno.com
I couldn’t help but think about how both beef and seafood are transported to Reno, or any other city like Reno that doesn’t sit next to the ocean, a fish farm or a cow feedlot. What exactly does it take to get fresh seafood to cities hundreds of miles away from the ocean? Is it the same process for our beef? Is it better if the fish in my sushi was caught in the ocean or raised on a farm? Why does it seem more acceptable for seafood to come from a random spot in the ocean, than our beef to come from Japan?
It’s hard for me to say if Reno is ahead of the game with its all-you-can-eat sushi, given our location far from the coast. But what’s the difference between imported seafood and beef, chicken, pork or turkey that was killed over a 1,000 miles away? They are all only as fresh as a truck can drive.
If you have answers, insights or general feelings to these questions, please let us know. In the meantime, here’s a delicious Miso Soup recipe from Alton Brown, another one of those food network guys. Or if you really want to impress—learn to make sushi from this Howcast video.
Happy eating friends! No matter what coastal or land-locked city you live in.
life, liberty and apple pie 
Even fresh fish is frozen- the freshest Sushi grade fish is vacume sealed and cryo-frozen (a deep fast freeze). Because of the nature of long runs to the fishing ground, fish would not last if not frozen. If you are in Oklahoma, Nevada, or sitting on the ocean almost all seafood is the same freshness- the exception would be fish bought off of a dock from a local charter then that is fresh but other than that it is all the same.
As always I opt for catch and kill your own food!
Beef from 1,000 miles away I am not ok with. Why, because it does not have to be. Fish in the ocean is one thing, it is where they live but American beef does not need to come from Russia when we have perfectly good beef here. Wait, why do we even eat beef when we have the opportunity to eat venison? Venison is actually leaner than chicken. Elk venison has less cholesterol than chicken! Red meat that has no marbled fat and is natural is what we should all eat. Make friends with a hunter and you won’t have to worry about hormone injected traveling meats.
The majority of things that are on typically consumed at sushi restaurants are either caught from extremely stressed stocks (tuna) or are grown in giant cages that release huge quantities of fish shit into the water and displace local fishermen (salmon). There’s some guides to eating sustainable seafood. In fact, our organization makes a good one that you can find here. Bottom line: You can eat sustainable seafood–even if it’s trucked in from far away–but you won’t be able to gorge on all you can eat from every type of fish in the ocean; you gotta be diligent and intentional in your selection.
On the beef side, feedlots are essential the on-land version of the factory fish farms used to grow salmon: dirty, disgusting, bad for workers and bad for the land. They’re the result of the consolidation in our food system in which a few corporations dominate the market–thus paying ranchers such a low price that Rancher Jane can’t afford to treat their workers well, take care of their land, or use organic feed. Here’s more info on the factory farm situation here.
There’s two bottom lines: One, on a superficial level, you gotta do a lot of research to find a farm that raises local beef in a way that you support. Two, on a deeper level, if you wanna make sure our food system is sustainable and just, we gotta organize to stop the corporate control of our food system.
Very well said! Thanks for the insights, but I want to know more! Where do you work? Do you ever eat sushi?
Thank you. I work at Food & Water Watch. And I eat sushi about twice a year–trying only to use our seafood card as a guide for what’s sustainable to eat.
You can find ourcard here: http://documents.foodandwaterwatch.org/SeafoodCard2011.pdf