The Art of Sushi (2024 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

After revealing the secrets of chocolate, French graphic artist Franckie Alarcon explores the Art of Sushi. After noticing how the Japanese dish had exploded in his native France, Alarcon traveled to the land of the rising sun to research how sushi was meant to be. In his research Alarcon will learn about sushi from both a traditional viewpoint and the modernized method. The artist will venture out into the Pacific to gather seafood in order to experience the freshest sushi ever as well as trek into the mountains of Japan to witness the growth and harvesting of sushi's most underrated ingredient- rice!

It's been said that a sushi master does nothing but learn to make rice for the first 7 years of an apprenticeship. That seems to be more of a myth than anything else. Most of the sushi chefs in this book got their start cleaning bathrooms and floors the first couple of years of their education. In Japan, a master chef wouldn't dream of letting a newbie make the rice. It's too important and expensive as an ingredient to let an untrained eye muck it up. In Japan, once an apprentice is given the chance to serve customers, they practice towards the end of the shift on customers who are at the point of fullness and inebriation. That way, they aren't able to decipher if the student chef's food was edible or not!

As Alarcon learns more about sushi, he unfolds other underrated elements of sushi making. From how the right piece of pottery can reveal a lot about both the sushi chef and diner to the methods of brewing shoyu, soy sauce and sake, if Franckie Alarcon overlooked anything in the art of sushi, it was by accident for sure.

This look at sushi is more than just an exotic exploration. Alarcon examines the ways sushi has become domesticated by both dining with a Japanese couple in their home as well as visiting a pair of Michelin star sushi chefs in France. Oddly enough, it's at a farm in France where Alarcon learns about the development of sushi's most famous condiment: wasabi!

As to be expected with a graphic novel about cuisine, especially seafood, The Art of Sushi dips its toe into the choppy waters of ecology and sustainability. Clearly, the great flocks of the world's oceans have been over-fished. The dubious nature of farm raised seafood has proven to not be the answer to this problem. Most experts on food ecology would point to using plant-based substitutes as the solution. Ironically, Alcaron being a Frenchman has an answer to the problem that I've never thought of before: eat the highest quality seafood possible as a bigger price tag often means greater care has been given to the product.

A staggering fact about water conservation that just had to be shared: it takes 4000 liters of water to grow 2.2 pounds of rice! That's just insane. Needless to say, that's something I learned from this amazing culinary graphic novel that will be shared with my culinary students. Several recipes for sushi and accompaniments are included in this book as well as information on the restaurants featured and online shopping resources are included for the at home cook who wants to create sushi of their own for family and friends.

Completing this review completes Task #7 (About Food or Beverage) of the 2024 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

In the Devil's Garden: A Sinful History of Forbidden Food

WORTH CONSUMING!

The book I wanted so long to be reunited with is finished. In the Devil’s Garden by Stewart Lee Allen is excellent. It covers the religious and moral taboos of food from the Cavemen to Roman Empire, From the Estrucians to the middle Ages, From Pope Pius to 1999, if someone thought it was wrong to eat something or bad to kill, it’s probably covered in this book.

The book is broken into 7 chapters; one for each of the Seven Deadly Sins. Here’s a fun food taboo fact from each chapter:

Chapter One: Lust Because of how closely in resembles a mummified person, the Mandrake was considered taboo, because people though the root was God’s first attempt at creating people (well that, and the fact people thought when you pulled the “Man” up, he gave off a terrible scream that drove the puller mad).

Chapter Two: Gluttony ever heard of the dish Trojan Pig? It was an outlawed dish in Rome (circa 76 A.D.). It was made by roasting an entire steer, stuffed with a lamb, which is stuffed with a swine, which is stuffed with a chicken. (pg. 50)

Chapter 3: Pride One theory as to the rise in Diabetes is the development of high yield (and thus high sugar content) corn, which makes the breakdown of insulin harder and the eater more diabetic.

Chapter 4: Sloth John Barleycorn was the name given to Alcohol during the 19th and early 20th century. He was thought to be the laziest, meanest man in the world, thanks to all the whiskey that flowed through his veins.

Chapter 5: Greed Kuru, or laughing man’s disease, is an ailment found in cannibals in the Congo and New Guinea. It’s obtained by eating the brain of a human which contains over-active proteins called prions. This disease is the human version of mad cow decease.

(This chapter actually has 2 facts that I had to include: it is believed that AIDS will continue to spread in Africa not because of sexual activity, but because of the delicacy of eating primates, which is causing not only the extinction of monkeys but Africans as well) (pp. 162-164).

Chapter 6: Blasphemy it was a common practice of Catholics in the medieval times till the 1800s to disguise food not allowed to be eaten during Lent to look like food allowed during the holy fast. The thought behind this: if it didn’t look like the forbidden food, it was not a sin to eat. Examples: A pheasant lined with almond scales to look like fish and egg shells stuffed with white and yellow almond paste.

Chapter 7: Anger The Aztec’s created smoke bombs to attack Cortez and his Spanish Armada by launching sacks filled with flaming peppers, which give of a potent and sometimes fatal smoke.

If these facts whet your appetite, you are in for a rare treat. Allen’s book makes gross things seem yummy. I didn’t get nauseous once, though some sections in the Lust chapter get a little steamy (and I’m not talking Brussels sprouts). There are several great looking recipes in here as well as fascinating history. Be sure to check out the Endnotes section as well. It’s not the normal endnote fare and has a lot of stuff not covered in the main body of the book.