Even though your sushi is fresh, perhaps flown in from Japan if you're hobnobbing it at some posh sushi or ceviche place, it's been frozen. The Times looks at the little-known government-stipulated (and widely accepted, though not really enforced) practice of freezing the raw fish you eat. The freezing helps kill parasites, which is always okay with Gothamist. Restaurants that use at least some frozen sushi: Nobu, Geisha, Jewel Bako, Sushi Yasuda, even Masa. One wholesaler gives this inside knowledge: "Fresh-frozen, re-freshed, flash-chilled, take your pick. It's all frozen." Of course, when serving the fish for $10 a pop, the new trend is towards "flash-freezing"/"super-freezing" which freezes the fish at 70 degrees below 0 (versus the 10 degrees below 0), so the fish maintains a "just like fresh" taste. And Jewel Bako owner Jack Lamb (and one of Paper's most beautiful people, along with wife, Grace) uses a medical freezer (for storing transplant organs) to store his fish.
In other health-related food news, the Carnegie Deli was closed for a day or so due to poor health department findings. The Post noted "insufficiently hot turkey wings" and the Times described, "Thirteen pounds of tuna were found at a relatively balmy 45 degrees - 4 degrees too warm - while a pile of potato pancakes was a tepid 91 degrees, which was 49 degrees too cool." You can never be too careful of balmy fish salads - a friend of Gothamist once had whitefish salad from a University Place bagel shop and was taken to the emergency room soon after.
Learn more about what the Food and Drug Administration is up to. And check out their Office of Seafood.
