If you were fascinated by the Vanity Fair article, If You Knew Sushi, you'll like this book, too. (It's mentioned in the VF article.)

Publishers Weekly Starred Review:

In this intriguing first book, Issenberg roams the globe in search of sushi and takes the reader on a cultural, historical and economic journey through the raw-fish trade that reads less like economics and more like an entertaining culinary travelogue.

He follows every possible strand in this worldwide web of history, economics and cuisine -- an approach that keeps the book lively with colorful places and characters, from the Tokyo fish market to the boats of North Atlantic fishermen, from tuna ranches off the coast of Australia to the sushi bars in Austin, Tex.

He weaves the history of the art and cuisine of sushi throughout, and his smart, lively voice makes the most arcane information fascinating.

Also see the New York Times review of the book.

From the Philly City Paper:

In case you're wondering about Issenberg's favorite sushi bar (and you know you are), it's Sagami in Collingswood, NJ, where he enjoys yellowtail for its firm-but-oily texture.

At the official web site, the reviews are summarized:

“Entertaining culinary travelogue ... smart, lively voice ... fascinating ... a worthy successor to John McPhee ... eloquent, intelligent, and definitive ... superior literary journalism ... engaging ... splendid ... beautifully written."

The author is writing a blog for Fast Company (only two posts, as yet). He recently had lunch with Kai Ryssdal of Marketplace and, separately, with Andy Leff of incPLACE.

From the Village Voice review:

Most revolting is an aside about a New Jersey broker whose reaction to September 11 was "Sons of bitches! I had tuna on one of those planes!"

Ah, New Jersey.

The Sushi Economy: Globalization and the Making of a Modern Delicacy

If you were fascinated by the Vanity Fair article, If You Knew Sushi, you'll like this book, too.

Publishers Weekly Starred Review:

To the uninitiated, few things can be more intimidating than a sushi bar.

Though the process of ordering and eating sushi isn't nearly as involved as some would think, it does require a certain amount of knowledge and etiquette to dine properly. Thankfully, Corson (The Secret Life of Lobsters) presents an exhaustive look at sushi and the chefs who prepare it that will go a long way toward instilling confidence.

Alternating between the cuisine's history and the key steps in a sushi chef's education, Corson puts the reader in the thick of things a la Michael Ruhlman's Making of a Chef, detailing the laborious process of making rice, the preparation of a myriad of fish and the storied history of the California Roll.

... Corson's enthusiasm for the topic is infectious -- especially when the subject turns to the popularity of sushi in landlocked states or the perils of dealing with mackerel.

Corson has created what could be the definitive work on the topic, enabling customers to comfortably and confidently stride into a sushi restaurant and order omakase without trepidation.

"Most experts agree on one thing. Customers who show off their sushi knowledge are tiresome."

Also see the New York Times review of the book, which says that

... the chapter on rice, a subject that Americans take for granted, is itself worth the price of the book.

The author's web site has all manner of supplementary material. He's also writing a blog, although for some reason he's decided to present all of the (text) entries as images. Odd.

Update: Note this summary review by Tyler Cowen:

The first few chapters are an excellent overview and history of sushi, after that the book is a lame account of a bunch of losers taking a sushi course.

The Zen of Fish: The Story of Sushi, from Samurai to Supermarket

If you were fascinated by the Vanity Fair article, If You Knew Sushi, you'll like these books, too. (One of them is mentioned in the VF article.)

As for my children, they eat sushi three or four times a week. They developed a taste for sushi when they were living in Nashville, Tenn., which, though it lacks any convincing French or Italian restaurants, has several fine sushi bars.

See, for example, Ru-San's, Koto, Samurai, Sonobana, and perhaps Sam's, too.

... What we now think of as sushi — Edo-mae nigiri — was invented as fast food for laborers.

... The chapter on rice, a subject that Americans take for granted, is itself worth the price of the book.

In 19th-century Tokyo, tuna was regarded as an inferior fish.

Over the course of two decades, "the average price for bluefin tuna paid to Atlantic fisherman rose by 10,000 percent."

"To eat sushi is to display ... full engagement in world commerce."

Sushi Books by Trevor Corson and Sasha Issenberg

While we're on the subject: Founders At Work has come up several times recently:

Ultimately, these interviews are required reading for anyone who wants to understand business, because startups are business reduced to its essence.

Question of the Day

House prices in the U.S. from 1890 until 2005, plotted as a roller coaster that you ride from a first person perspective. Here is the data source. Hold on to your hats.

Real Estate Roller Coaster

Thad Starner was ahead of his time.

"Consumer electronics in many respects has become a lifestyle business and, I would say, a fashion business."

This, I didn't know:

The idea for the fashion shows came from another of the Infocharms co-founders, Katrina Barillova, a former model. Ms. Barillova came to the United States from what was then Czechoslovokia, where she had worked as an industrial spy by posing as a model, wearing listening devices while attending fancy parties. She designed and sewed her own dresses, she said, because she had to find creative ways to hide the devices in her clothes.

On the Market for Fashionable Electronics

The best ideas for your business might come from someone who doesn't even work for you.

... companies will be forced to seek external talent in order to solve their greatest challenges.

... in October 2006, MIT launched its Center for Collective Intelligence in order to study the dynamics of collaboration and the tools to facilitate it. [See also the Center for Coordination Science which preceded it.]

If the choice is protecting IP versus innovation, you've got to default to innovation. You can't win by living off your morals in this new global economy.

The old IT department model was: We're IT, we build infrastructures and applications and deliver them to users to meet their needs. And a new model might be: We harness the power of mass collaboration within our enterprise and outside, to create platforms whereby both internal and external users can coinnovate capability and value.

Also: meet Henry Jenkins.

Upcoming speakers at CCI include Tara Lemmey and Doug Engelbart.

Why You Should Collaborate

About those ads ...

LET’S say you wanted to build an advertising-supported online media business that took in $50 million a year in revenue. How many users would you have to attract to get there?

It sounds like MemeStreams may have the right approach:

It may be better for one or two people to create a relatively simple site — say, a hobbyist blog for guitar enthusiasts — and use a service like Google AdWords to, hopefully, make enough money to live on.

Here's the analysis.

Popularity Might Not Be Enough

Bill Gates may not be CEO any more, but Microsoft still thinks Content Is King.

"Companies that create no content of their own, and make money solely on the back of other people’s content, are raking in billions through advertising and initial public offerings."

"Google is saying to you and other copyright owners: ‘Trust us, you’re protected. We’ll keep the digital copies secure. We’ll only show snippets. We won’t harm you, we’ll promote you’."

"But ... anyone who visits YouTube ... will immediately recognise that it follows a similar cavalier approach to copyright."

Microsoft is trying to differentiate itself from Google by portraying itself as more sympathetic to copyright holders than Google.

They seem not to be paying attention.

Keep this up, and they'll quickly find themselves on the wrong side of history.

Microsoft Sidles Up to Big Content

Let’s examine the current situation and how we got here, then look at three possible alternatives for the future.

The first alternative is to continue on the current course ...

The second alternative is for Apple to license its FairPlay DRM technology ...

The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely.

The problem with this pitch is that he frames the debate in a way that excludes certain business models from the discussion. In particular, he ignores the music-as-service model as implemented by his rival, Real, with Rhapsody (and Rhapsody To Go).

A DRM-free music rental service would be a hard sell to the big four.

Steve Jobs - Thoughts on Music