TREVOR CORSON’s Blog

Giant Human Lobster Afoot

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:01:12 +0300

Just when I thought the Guinness Book of World Records was full, I hear that plans are afoot in Maine—where else?—to create the world's largest lobster made entirely of human beings. And we wonder why the American economy is losing its competitive edge.
Next summer, according to the report below, 2,250 people will gather in Maine to compromise the monster, which will have to be photographed from the air. "Imagine if you will," the article says, "a humanoid crustacean."
Believe me, I will. I do it every day. Every time I look in the bathroom mirror, I have this fantasy ...
Wait, more than two thousand people? I'm wondering, what is the record so far for a lobster comprised of human beings? I'd guess that the answer is probably "one"—such as, the gentleman in a lobster suit pictured above.
It seems to me that a few fraternity brothers trying to survive a cold Maine winter could drink some beers and get into the Guinness Book by contorting themselves to comprise a lobster made of, say three or four people, maybe five.
But suddenly now we are talking about a lobster made of thousands of people. Where is the sense of competition in this? How about starting with, I don't know, 20 people, and then see if anyone else in the world can beat that?
This 2,250 people idea, it sounds ... how would my grandmother have put it? Like you are trying to get on the Today Show. Oh wait, Maine is trying to get on the Today Show.
It won't help. A few weeks from now, the Chinese government is going to decide that the Olympics weren't spectacular enough, and that what they really need to attract the respect of the international community is make a giant lobster out of one million people.
They can do that. With the snap of a finger, they can do that. Be afraid, America, be very afraid.
I challenge you, Americans, to make a humanoid lobster ten million strong, that will reach from sea to shining sea, and be visible from the moon.
Visible to the Chinese astronauts who are going to get there before we do again.
At any rate, all this is simply proof that the winter in Maine is, indeed, too long.

PLANS FOR THE WORLD'S LARGEST HUMAN LOBSTER, AND A GUINNESS WORLD RECORD, TAKE FORM
Boothbay Register

Lisa Kristoff
Staff Reporter

April 3, 2008

A human lobster? That's right, a human lobster - and not the Harbor Lights Festival's "Mr. & Mrs. Claws."

Creating the world's largest human lobster was the brainchild of Dianne Ward, owner of the Kenniston Hill Inn in Boothbay, as this very long winter was coming to an end.

How does one create a giant human lobster? With people, naturally … first, you find an architect to calculate the number of people needed for a 200-foot or 100-foot lobster.

Ward found such an architect at Gates & Leighton. According to architect Don Leighton's calculations, 2,250 people (give or take) will be required for the 200-footer; 600 (ditto) people for the "smaller version."

Next, you have to find somewhere to stage such a form so where do you go? Ward pitched the idea to Julie Lamy, executive director of the Boothbay Region Land Trust after meeting with another idea.

"One day Dianne came to the office with an idea for a winter equipment swap fund-raiser that she would organize," said Lamy. "And then she said…'you know what I was thinking about the other day?"

Next thing Lamy knew she was offering up the Zac Preserve or Singing Meadow, two of the Land Trust properties Lamy knew would be large enough for the big show.

"Her enthusiasm is contagious," Lamy said. "It's a goofy, but fun idea and we are always looking for ways to illustrate the tie between conservation and tourism."

Lamy suggested Ward contact photographer Bob Mitchell as well as Chip Newell, a member of the Land Trust board, who just happens to be a pilot.

Ward was right on it and has lined up Mitchell's creative eye to capture the region's best-known product in the air - and on the ground.

That's right, an aerial shot of the human lobster will be photographed from a plane flown by realtor/pilot Mark Keegan.

Imagine, if you will, picture post cards of the "humanoid crustacean" for sale in Boothbay shops; and picture them going like, well, like lobster in August.

Imagine synchronizing the humans in the claw to make it appear as though they were moving …

Visualize another group of people, musicians perhaps, marching onto the meadow, in yellow, banded together like a giant, human elastic …

Sound crazy? Sound outrageous? Sound like a Guinness World Record worthy event? Ayuh!

Ward sees this becoming an annual event, a fun, creative way to bring more visitors to the region that could lead to better businesses and a novel opportunity for visitors and residents.

Jaimie Logan, executive director of the Boothbay Harbor Region Chamber of Commerce, is also working with Ward on the event tentatively scheduled for July.

"Dianne's idea is a terrific - and inspired - one! The event has the potential to bring an enormous amount of positive media attention to the region which, from a tourism marketing standpoint, is worth its weight in gold," Logan said. " It's a great fit with our region - and what a terrific community event, bringing together residents and visitors for fun and history in the making!"

Making history, indeed. Ward immediately checked the Guinness World Book of Records Web site and, sure enough, no human lobster had been recorded. Ward made contact via the e-mail and has received a claim number for Boothbay's human lobster.

Upon visiting the Guinness Web site, a category must be selected, initially, one might pause and consider the categories "human body" and "amazing feats" to find our entry - later this summer, that is.

"Amazing Feats - Mass Participation" is where Boothbay's Largest Human Lobster will eventually be forever, um, "trapped."

The event has also attracted the attention of MSNBC - through a connection of Ward's.

"A good friend's daughter is anchorwoman Contessa Brewer," related Ward. "Contessa then pitched it to the Today show as a story about how an individual or group sets out to attempt (and achieve) a world record."

More details on the progress of this potential world record breaking, exciting event will be revealed as they are assembled.

Anyone interested in sponsorship and/or participation, contact Ward at the Kenniston Hill Inn, 633-2159.

Seafood Solutions: A Chef's Guide

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:55:08 +0300

Hello people, want to keep eating sushi? We’re running out of fish. An organization called the Chef's Collaborative has just released a useful guide for selecting sustainable seafood. The guide is primarily intended for professional chefs, but it's easy to peruse and digest, and gives a great introduction to the issues. I have no affiliation with the organization, but I am in favor of conserving our ocean's fish and shellfish so that we can continue to enjoy them. The group sent me an email about the guide, and after looking it over I'd say that anyone trying to make smarter choices at the seafood counter or in a restaurant ought to find it helpful. You'll probably be surprised by some of the things you read in it. You can download the guide here.

Don't Eat Oversized Lobsters!

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 11:24:37 +0300

The lobster catch in Maine was down last year, and some scientists fear the fishery could be facing tough times ahead. There are a variety of opinions on the subject, but Dr. Diane Cowan of The Lobster Conservancy (whom I profiled in my book The Secret Life of Lobsters) is concerned about the "brookstock" of oversized lobsters—big lobsters out there having sex and making lobster babies for the future. Dr. Cowan worries that these lobsters are under threat from fishermen in states that don't protect the large animals, as fishermen in Maine do. Here's an article that explains the situation and Dr. Cowan's concerns.

Iron Chef America: “Battle Blackfish”

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 09:24:57 +0300

My appearance as a judge on Food Network TV's Iron Chef America "Battle Blackfish" finally aired this past week. My fellow judges for the battle were long-time Vogue food columnist Jeffrey Steingarten and Japanese food critic Akiko Katayama. It was a delight to meet and work with both of them.
The blackfish battle was waged by challenger Michael Cimarusti of Providence restaurant in L.A. against Iron Chef Morimoto. I’ve culled a short selection of highlights from the episode—mostly my own comments, naturally!—to create the video montage below.

"Is He Your Lobster?"

Sun, 6 Jul 2008 18:04:55 +0300

The question of whether lobsters mate for life—a topic made famous by the television show "Friends"—has been settled once and for all. From an article in today's New York Times, headlined "Out of My Shell Over You":
After Nicola Kraus kissed David Wheir for the first time, her mother had a question for her: "Is he your lobster?"
The crustacean reference came from the television show "Friends." On one of the many episodes when Ross and Rachel got back together, Phoebe declared, "He's her lobster." According to Phoebe, "It's a known fact that lobsters fall in love and mate for life."
Ms. Kraus, 33, playfully began referring to Mr. Wheir, 36, as her lobster, and incorporated the pet name into plans for their wedding on June 14.
She had already established that she was not beholden to wedding traditions when she told her bridesmaids to wear their own clothing. ("Because they're my friends, not my backup singers," she said.) So she arranged to have two plastic lobsters placed on the top of the wedding cake and Mr. Wheir's ring engraved with the word "Lobster."
But fictional characters are not always the best source of information.
"As it turns out, lobsters don't mate for life," explained Mr. Wheir, a video editor in New York.
Actually, male lobsters in particular are rather promiscuous. "Lobsters do have a monogamous bond, but it only lasts for two weeks," said Trevor Corson, the author of "The Secret Life of Lobsters" (HarperCollins, 2004). "Essentially what happens is that the alpha male in the neighborhood mates successively with each of the females for two weeks each."
Read the entire article ...

Sushi Concierge!

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:34:27 +0300

Food & Wine magazine calls my Sushi Concierge service "the new must-have food accessory"!
Click here to read.

Remembering Tiananmen

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:26:45 +0300

I've been digging into my own past in recent weeks, struggling to find the right words to describe the events I witnessed in China nearly two decades ago. It's been a difficult process. The result is this: an article and audio interview in the newspaper where, fittingly, I first got my start as a writer, The Christian Science Monitor: 
WHAT TIANANMEN CRUSHED IN ME As an American student in China, I saw idealism bloom—then get trampled by Trevor Corson
NEW YORK—I was born in the final year of the 1960s, too late to identify with that decade of rebellion, idealism, and change. I grew up in an orderly American suburb and spent my teen years at a comfortable prep school, doing my homework and following the rules of the Reagan era. But the '60s had left their mark. When I received a scholarship to study in China for a year after graduating high school, my open-minded parents and politically liberal teachers encouraged me to go. Read on ... 
The question of the past and future roles of idealism in China—and the prospects for democratic reform, and what such reform might look like—are awfully complex and nuanced issues, which I've written about at greater length elsewhere. I wrote about the less idealistic aspects of the Tiananmen movement in The Atlantic Monthly here, and the likely limits and challenges of democratic transformation in China in The American Prospect here.

Hot Car for a Hot Planet

Thu, 5 Jun 2008 22:05:54 +0300

A recent survey by General Motors found that nearly nine out of ten women would rather talk to a guy who's behind the wheel of a Prius hybrid than a Porsche.
I must admit that I've been driving around for the past eight years feeling very smug about my tiny, 60-mpg Honda gas-electric-hybrid car. There’s even more reason to feel smug now, of course, with $150 oil around the corner. But the true source of my snugness about the car is the fabulous and surprising truth that GM's survey has now made an open secret: it's a chick magnet the ladies like it.
When I occasionally try to explain to some fellow I meet that he’d be wasting money on a Ferrari because women dig hybrids, the response is general incredulity. The Ferrari lovers (of which I once was one) get the sort of look on their face that they probably get when a Greenpeace activist accosts them on the sidewalk and suggests they give up their lucrative career as a hedge-fund manager to go ram Japanese whaling ships in a rubber raft.
But they don’t have to take my word for it anymore. Thanks, GM. Boys, get in line.
P.S. It’s even better if your hybrid car comes with a touching story.
Text and top photo are copyright © 2008 by Trevor Corson.
All rights reserved.

Reading in Redhook

Mon, 2 Jun 2008 05:25:36 +0300

This afternoon I read from my book The Zen of Fish at Sunny’s Bar in Redhook, the gritty working-waterfront section of Brooklyn.
It was my first foray into Redhook. As soon as you walk into Sunny’s, you realize it’s probably one of the coolest bars in the world, and this impression is confirmed by the low-key gathering of really friendly people who show up to listen to the authors.
I shared the microphone behind the bar with two other New York writers: Kelly McMasters, who has just published Welcome to Shirley: A Memoir from an Atomic Town, and Jim Rasenberger, whose new book came out last fall: America, 1908: The Dawn of Flight, the Race to the Pole, the Invention of the Model T and the Making of a Modern Nation. Turns out, Jim and I went to the same high school.
I read from the chapter in The Zen of Fish called “Hollywood Showdown,” part of which you can check out for yourself here.
The reading series at Sunny’s has been curated for the past six years by Brooklyn writer Gabriel Cohen, author of several novels, including one called Redhook, as well as the new nonfiction book Storms Can’t Hurt the Sky: A Buddhist Path Through Divorce.
I like that title, Storms Can’t Hurt the Sky.
I also liked the fact that Kelly arrived at the reading with a rhubarb pie that she had made from rhubarb from her own garden.

Text and top photo are copyright © 2008 by Trevor Corson.
All rights reserved.

Inferno Causes Lobster Catastrophe

Sat, 31 May 2008 00:59:58 +0300

Okay, so it’s nowhere near as terrible as the Myanmar cyclone or the China earthquake, but this morning fire engulfed the waterfront building belonging to Boston seafood dealer James Hook, destroying this local landmark. The AP reported that “there were no reports of injuries”—oh, except for the tens of thousands of lobsters that were in there. About 60,000 pounds worth, to be exact. Too bad they weren’t able to get away, like those lobsters that escaped from a German supermarket last fall. Baring escape, I guess they were going to be boiled alive anyway.
R.I.P.

As Tom Waits Put It, "I'm Big in Japan"

Tue, 27 May 2008 02:28:53 +0300

I'm excited to announce that 日本の「Hanako」という雑誌は、今週お寿司が乗っている表紙を出して、日本のおいしい寿司屋をいくつか紹介する。そして外国に現れてきた寿司現象にも接する。（「世界中が夢中になる東京のお寿司」と見出しが述べる。）びっくりしたのは、私が先月、司会者として参加したワシントンDCの桜祭り寿司コンテストに関する記事も発見した。どうぞご覧ください。(In case you didn't catch that, a write-up of the sushi event I emceed in Washington D.C. last month has appeared in the current issue of the Japanese magazine Hanako. And as you can see from my photo, I'm actually very tiny in Japan. Tom Waits lyrics included below.)

Lobster Fags in Jars. And Other Requests

Tue, 27 May 2008 01:07:37 +0300

Some emails I've received lately as the author of The Secret Life of Lobsters (yes, these are all actual emails that I have received, I did not make these up):

Subject: re: Lobster Art
Date: May 25, 2008 7:51:15 AM EDT

Good Morning Trevor,
The Lobster Fun & Fag's was interesting. I stumbled onto you site.

Subject: No subject
Date: May 18, 2008 5:28:49 PM EDT

how to bottle lobster in a masion jar? How long would you boil it and do you put anything in the bottle?

Subject: lobster burping
Date: April 28, 2008 8:20:22 PM EDT

Two different people have told me they had to burp the lobsters in the tank in the seafood market where they worked. Any thoughts?

Subject: Lobster names
Date: May 26, 2008 5:00:22 PM EDT

My friend was notably surprised when her northern friends came down with 6 lobsters, 1 male, 5 female. They continued to impress when they pulled out a magnifying glass and lo and behold the name “Charles” was written in the shell of the body (by the shoulder). Apparently all lobsters come with names….

Is this actually true? Do lobsters really come with names? She swears they do…

Can you confirm, have you heard this before?

Subject: Female Lobster's name
Date: January 10, 2008 11:02:38 AM EST

Need 4 letter name for Female lobster. Thanks.

Subject: TrevorCorson.com
Date: December 5, 2007 2:30:02 AM EST

I am a big fan and would love a signed picture of you!!!
-Psycho Dave

Subject: i'm sorry
Date: October 11, 2007 12:11:09 PM EDT

I have looked everywhere for this answer and everyone seems to skirt the issue. I was cooking lobsters once and I saw something so alarming that I did not know whether to laugh or send it in somewhere for further study. This, I am assuming male, lobster had two large huh-huh’s sticking out of the rear bottom side of it. They were so large, both of them, that I thought the females in the sea sure are missing this one. So as to not sound any more crass than possible, do male lobsters have, you know, huh-huh’s?

Subject: blinking lites and lobsters
Date: September 28, 2007 3:32:43 AM EDT

will a blinking light attrack lobsters to your hoop net, or will they avoid it?

Subject: My Lobster Project
Date: September 24, 2007 6:53:59 PM EDT

I am in the fourth grade, and my teacher gave me lobsters to study. My mom taught me how to hypnotise a lobster. Some fisherman told my mom that sailors used some thing in the lobster head like a statue to Mary. They could pray to it. Do you know what that is? I want to use it in my project, but ot has to be true.
PS Your web site is cool. I like the whale fart.

Subject: Lobster Requiem
Date: September 15, 2007 4:54:46 PM EDT

Your Loster Requiem idea is So DISGUSTINGLY SICK it's hard to believe that you actually think you are clever with your idea. Lobsters feel pain Until their nervous system is destroyed. THEY ARE SCREAMING! and you would too if you were dropped into Boiling water or even had it turned up slowly to boiling. Either way, they don't deserve to be killed like that. Nothing does.

Subject: help
Date: September 13, 2007 5:21:37 PM EDT

I AM A FISHERMAN OF FEW RESOURCES IN BRAZIL, WAS STOLEN AND MY BOAT UNHAPPYLY THIS STOPPING, I FISH OCTOPUS, LOBSTERS AND CRAB AS YOURS, IF THEY WILL BE ABLE TO HELP I AM NEEDING TO ME PLANS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF A LOBSTER BOAT, AN ELECTRIC LOBSTER HAULER 12 VOLTS AND A REVERSOR WHY MINE HE WAS STOLEN BY PIRATES IN THE PORT OF MY CITY, I AM VERY GRATEFUL THE YOURS, THANKS AND SORRY MY BAD ENGLISH

Subject: now i'm confused...
Date: September 5, 2007 8:57:43 PM EDT

I WAS TOLD THE OTHER NITE BY THE MAN THAT I'M SEEING THAT I WAS HIS LOBSTER...I WAS CONFUSED, AND HE SAID THAT MY "HOMEWORK" FOR THE NITE WAS TO LOOK IT UP..SO HERE I'M THINKING THIS WAS GOING TO BE A NICE THING..BUT AFTER READING WHAT YOU EXPLAINED..IT WASN'T VERY NICE AT ALL...

CAN YOU HELP ME UNDERSTAND?

Subject: sister in law
Date: March 22, 2007 1:05:30 AM EDT

will you marry my sister in law? she is chinese, single and cute. My wife (her sister) loves...LOVES lobster.

What's All the Fuss About Cherry Blossoms?

Thu, 3 Apr 2008 13:54:47 +0300

The sake flowed freely last night at the National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington D.C., where the National Cherry Blossom Festival's annual Grand Sushi & Sake Tasting was in full swing. I delivered the keynote lecture for the event, and emceed a sushi-making competition between eleven sushi chefs. By the end of the evening, with empty bottles of sake everywhere, I'm not sure anyone remembered that we had gathered there because of a bunch of pink flowers. And that, I am here to tell you, was a victory for cross-cultural understanding and world peace.
When I was a boy, growing up in the D.C. suburbs, during the first week of April my parents would mount a vigil, watching the weather forecasts. I learned to dread those days. Sooner or later, on one of those mornings, my mother would drag us out of bed in the pre-dawn darkness and spur us toward the car with promises of ethereal beauty.
We'd race across the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge and park by the Tidal Basin, across from the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, as the sky was brightening and the water beginning to glow in pastel colors. Rubbing the sleep from our eyes, we'd stagger from the car. We'd peer up. Overhead a fluffy pink canopy enveloped us, just as the first rays of sun illuminated the upper branches of the 3,750 cherry trees that had been given as a gift of friendship to the city of Washington by Japan. "They're so beautiful," we'd murmur.
I believed this American hokum about the ethereal beauty of cherry blossoms until well into adulthood. It wasn’t until I was hanging out regularly with Japanese people that I learned the true, authentic, deeply spiritual purpose of visiting the cherry blossoms: to get raging drunk.
The routine involves sitting with your friends or colleagues in a big circle on an ugly plastic tarp in an insanely crowded stretch of asphalt or dirt, gorging yourself on sweet rice balls called dango, and imbibing irresponsible quantities of sake. In Japan, the unofficial motto of cherry-blossom viewing is "hana yori dango," a phrase somewhat akin to James Carville's famous injunction, "it's the economy, stupid," because it translates roughly as "it's not the flowers [stupid], it's the snacks" -- and by "snacks" we of course mean "alcohol." And to think I could have legitimately arrived at school all those April mornings completely hammered.
In fact, Japan's gift of thousands of ethereally beautiful cherry trees to Washington in 1912 did nothing to actually foster friendship. Shortly thereafter Japan and the U.S. started beating the crap out of each other during World War II. But what if we had sat around with the Japanese under the cherry blossoms, eating dango and getting drunk together -- the purpose for which cherry blossoms were originally intended?
Besides dango, another thing the Japanese eat under the cherry blossoms is sushi. So, I'd say that despite my childhood naiveté and the horrors of World War II, it was a triumph of cross-cultural sensitivity last night for us Americans attending the National Cherry Blossom Festival's Grand Sushi & Sake Tasting to focus on the sushi and sake, and not stress out so much about the beauty of the blossoms.
The sushi-making competition unfolded like an episode of Iron Chef. Each of the eleven sushi chefs prepared one special "creative sushi" item for the panel of five judges, who sat at a long table. The judges included food writers and editors from the Washington Post, Washington City Paper, and National Geographic Traveler as well as local chefs Kaz Okochi from Kaz Sushi Bistro and Morou Ouattara, chef-owner of Farrah Olivia and actual Iron Chef veteran. The contestants were a diverse group of sushi chefs with backgrounds from Latin America, Thailand, Korea, and the U.S. as well as Japan, including one female chef.

After the judging, I delivered a talk on the history of sushi to the guests assembled in National Geographic's gorgeous Grosvenor Auditorium. To get people in the mood to eat, I showed slides of the original, ancient form of sushi, in which fish and rice are left to decompose until they form a sticky goo that possesses the fine aroma, according to one Japanese text I consulted, of "the vomit of a drunkard." (You can read all about that delicacy in The Zen of Fish. I've sampled it and lived to tell the tale.)
Next, the contestants marched onstage and I announced the winners. First prize went to Hyung Joon Lee, with a sushi adaptation of Korean ssam, which generally involves food wrapped in a leaf. Okay gourmets, get ready: Hyung Joon Lee's sushi ssam involved sushi rice, salmon, sesame oil, Korean miso, yogurt, honey, avocado, lemon, tomato, onion, scallion, gluten, and pear, all topped with tiny spheres of cream cheese and served on a spoon alongside slices of pickled chayote -- and oh yes, wrapped in a leaf.
Second prize went to a smoked duck sushi nigiri with foie gras and balsamic vinegar by a chef named Bryan Emperor. The duck had been smoked, Emperor explained, with wood chips from an actual Japanese cherry tree. Like George Washington, Emperor claimed that he had not cut down any cherry trees in the process. I did not have time to verify this by visiting the Tidal Basin to see if all 3,750 trunks remained intact.
After the awards, the guests repaired to a vast hall where they could sample all manner of sushi and sake while taiko drummers pounded out inebriating rhythms under Japanese parasols hanging upside down from the ceiling. I signed copies of The Zen of Fish but quickly sold out of the books on hand. So I downed a glass of sake myself and recalled fond memories of cherry-blossom viewing in Japan, including the time I was strolling under the cherry trees around the Imperial Palace in Tokyo late one night when a Japanese salaryman in a suit approached and asked if he could kiss me.
Like I said, a victory for world peace.
P.S. One more important function served by cherry blossoms in today's Japan: data provider for digital cell-phone content.

Text and all photos are copyright © 2008 by Trevor Corson, except photo of Japanese rice balls and National Geographic poster. All rights reserved.

Lunch at Little Pepper

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 23:53:29 +0300

Too much sushi lately. How best to compensate? A trip today to Flushing, New York City, for lunch at Little Pepper.
I lived in China for two years back in the 1980s. I spent most of my time in Beijing, and learned to speak the northern dialect, Mandarin. Unfortunately, that doesn't help me much in the famous Chinatown of lower Manhattan, since most of the folks there hail from southern China and speak the Cantonese dialect. Northern and southern Chinese dialects are so different that, in American terms, it would be as if a person from Boston and a person from Atlanta couldn't understand anything the other person said.
I spent a summer in Hong Kong in the early 1990s trying to learn Cantonese -- the only thing I remember is that the dialect has seven different tones instead of Mandarin's four, and that as a result, it's very easy to ask a vegetable vendor the cost of a cabbage and accidentally ask instead, "How much to remove your clothes?"
Flushing is a more-recently established Chinese neighborhood compared with Manhattan's Chinatown. (And as with Chinatown, it looks a bit like you are actually in China.) Most of Flushing's Chinese residents are from the north, so I could actually break out my rusty Mandarin and communicate.
My friends recommended a basement hole-in-the-wall called Little Pepper, which specializes in the spicy cuisine of Sichuan province. Not exactly northern fare, but some of the best food in the land. Perhaps the first subtle hint that you are going to get something a tad spicy at Little Pepper comes as you descend the staircase to the basement and encounter a window strung with a curtain of red chile peppers -- not so little -- flanked by firecrackers.
The menu includes whole dried rabbit and a variety of animal intestines and organs. I don't usually eat much meat, but my friends do, and so dove in. We went for cumin lamb and duck with ginger, plus several versions of the standard Sichuan favorites of spicy tofu and dan-dan noodles. You can get a more professional assessment of Little Pepper's food than I can provide from food critic Robert Sietsema's review in the Village Voice. It was all yummy. One particular characteristic of authentic Sichuan food is the numbingly metallic taste of Sichuan peppercorns. Not sure why they're so good, but they is. The lady serving us didn't speak English, but she was very friendly.

On the drive home on the Bronx-Queens Expressway, passing the Calvary Cemetery with the Manhattan skyline in the background, I stuck my camera out the car window, held it up as high as I could, and pressed the trigger. Soak up the spice of life, folks, and enjoy the little peppers while you can. After that, you're six feet under.

Text and photos are copyright © 2008 by Trevor Corson. All rights reserved.

Voodoo Lily Vegetarian Sushi

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 21:21:39 +0200

The Japanese Consul-General to Detroit, Mr. Tamotsu Shinotsuka, is an extremely friendly man -- I can tell you that he is far more charming and gregarious than his official mugshot would suggest. Of course, he has to be extremely friendly, considering what Japanese car companies are doing to the Motor City.
In keeping with his being extremely friendly, Mr. Shinotsuka invited a hundred guests to his home last night for an evening exploring Japanese culinary culture. That's where I come in. The Japan-America Society flew me out to Detroit to entertain the consulate's guests with a talk on sushi, as well as play-by-play commentary while the Consul-General's personal chef -- Chef Hiro, recently arrived from Japan -- demonstrated sushi-making techniques. A representative from Kikkoman soy sauce named Mr. Okuhara was also present, to explain the complex and surprising process by which soy sauce is made -- a fascinating topic I write about as well in my book, The Zen of Fish. The three of us are pictured here after the event, with Chef Hiro at left, his hands red and stiff from making so much sushi.
I was especially impressed with Chef Hiro's unconventional sushi offerings, many of which were vegetarian. I am always trying to explain to people that by definition, sushi doesn't have to involve raw fish at all -- anything with vinegared rice is sushi -- and Chef Hiro proved it. Here are some snapshots of his imaginative work. First, nigiri sushi topped with slices of zucchini, tofu, and konjac (also known as "voodoo lily").

In addition, Chef Hiro had crafted gunkan-style sushi with soy paper wrapped around rice topped with baby corn, quail egg, and caviar, as well as with asparagus and tomato.

("Gunkan" means "battleship," and refers to the style of sushi usually used when serving roe -- the eggs of sea urchins or fish, generally -- where the seaweed is wrapped around the sides of the rice to keep the roe from falling off the top. Supposedly the original form of this type of sushi resembles a fleet of little battleships. You tell me.)

Since there was a Kikkoman rep in the house, there were also bottles of soy sauce everywhere. Here's a factoid for you, provided by Kikkoman's Mr. Okuhara: Techniques for making soy sauce may have been first brought to Japan from China by a Zen Buddhist priest named Kakushin in the 13th century.
I mentioned to Mr. Okuhara my observation that Americans tend to use far more soy sauce than Japanese people do when they eat sushi -- probably more than they should, since too much soy sauce tends to mask the subtle flavors of most sushi fish. I was curious what his reaction would be.
He nodded and said, "We are very grateful to America."

Text is copyright © 2008 by Trevor Corson. All rights reserved.