Overview

Sushi and sashimi are by now a global sensation and have become perhaps the best known of Japanese foods but they are also the most widely misunderstood. Oishii: The History of Sushi reveals that sushi began as a fermented food with a sour taste, used as a means to preserve fish. This book, the first history of sushi in English, traces sushi's development from China to Japan and then internationally, and from street food to high-class cuisine. Included are two dozen historical and original recipes that show the diversity of sushi and how to prepare it. Written by an expert on Japanese food history, this book is a must read for understanding sushi's past, its variety and sustainability and how it became one of the world's greatest anonymous cuisines.

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9781789143836

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Reviews

Deploying gorgeous visual material and exquisite detail from over a millennia of Chinese and Japanese written sources, Rath historicizes, regionalizes, and denationalizes the contested story of the birth and transformation of various kinds of sushi. He also shows how this modest dish went global as it acquired substantial cultural capital in the late twentieth century. A lucid and beautifully produced book. --Krishnendu Ray, chair, Department of Nutrition and Food Studies, NYU Steinhardt Without a doubt the most definitive book I have ever read on what is now one of the world's most popular foods. Rath's Oishii is not only well-written and packed with fascinating, delicious information, but easy to read as well. It belongs on the bookshelf of any lover of good food. --Ken Hom, OBE, author, chef, and TV presenter

Author Information

Eric C. Rath is Professor of Premodern Japanese History at the University of Kansas. He is the author of Japan’s Cuisines: Food, Place and Identity (Reaktion Books, 2016) and Food and Fantasy in Early Modern Japan (2010).

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