Last week, what may be the trendiest of the new wave of LA sushi bars – Katsuya in Hollywood – opened its Philippe Starck-designed doors to the thin/pierced/tattooed denizens of the Hollywood demi-monde. Which is fine for the state of sushi in Hollywood. But it also deepens the Historic Sushi Conundrum. For as both Sasha Issenberg details in her fascinating volume The Sushi Economy: Globalization and the Making of a Modern Delicacy and Trevor Corson is his The Zen of Fish: The Story of Sushi, From Samurai to Supermarket, sushi did not begin as a snack that went well with a litchi-flavored mojito. It was, originally, a way of preserving fish – by salting and pickling. We are obsessed with eating fish that's fresh. Yet back in the day, fish wasn't considered to be edible, until it had aged a bit. Which is not something that would go over well with the Little Black Dress crowd. As Britney/Lindsay/Paris might say, when handed an order of well-ripened mackerel, "Ew!" Or perhaps, for variation, "Ick!"
– Merrill Shindler