Finished Interesting Book - The Story of Sushi

I just finished a book that I thought was very interesting and informative. Also, it was about a subject that I am passionate about...SUSHI. I love sushi! It is, by far, my favorite food to eat while dining out. I love the taste, the experience, the culture, the history, and the awesomeness of sushi. So, this book was right up my alley. It chronicled the story of several people going through the California Sushi Academy to learn how to be sushi chefs. Interwoven into their story was tons of history about the origins of sushi, and tons of science about why sushi tastes the way it does and how it reacts with our bodies. It was really interesting. This book was probably the most informative book about sushi I have ever read. It gave me a new appreciation of the work that goes into making sushi. Even just the sushi rice that is prepared for nigiri sushi takes hours and hours to prepare. It's easy to overlook the preparation that goes into making sushi when you are too busy scarfing down those tasty treats. Also, at the end of the book there was an appendix about the right way to eat sushi. We Americans have developed some really bad habits with our sushi eating techniques. For instance, did you know that rubbing your chopsticks together to eliminate splinters is an insult to the chef and the restaurant? You're telling them that their chopsticks are low quality and therefore require your splinter removing efforts. Also, putting wasabi in your soy sauce is useless and an insult to the chef. You are telling them that the tastes they have worked so hard to prepare is not good enough and you need to help them by adding more flavor. It is useless because wasabi loses it's spiciness when dunked in soy sauce. In fact, in Japan, they don't even put a glob of wasabi on your Geta. They know that the chef has already added the correct amount of wasabi to complement the fish. In addition, sometimes dunking your sushi or hand roll in the soy sauce is an insult because the chef has already added specially made sauces to complement the flavor of the fish. I will definitely be more mindful of these factoids during my next sushi dining experience. Anyway, if you like sushi, get and read this book. You'll be enlightened, amazed, and educated. The only problem with this book is that while reading it, I craved sushi every single minute and couldn't stop thinking about it.