I just finished The Sushi Economy, by a friend in Washington, Sasha Issenberg. Allow me to recommend it. It's a lively trip from Boston to Austin to Tokyo, and points beyond and in between. It's also packed, not only with bite-sized trivia for regaling dining companions at your next sushi outing (be it a budget-busting prix fixe at MASA or a bargain-basement all-you-can-eat adventure with Bobby Flay's body double, Jeff Novich), but also with plenty of practical tips such as this one, from a skilled but foul-mouthed Texas restaurateur:"'I can pick out and choose every different cut of every different fish. If two women sit down and they're not going to taste a bit of the food - they're ordering a California roll - I'm not going to give them a good piece of salmon. I'm going to give them a piece of tail. If there's a forty-year-old Japanese guy who has been eating sushi since before I was born, I'm goping to cut him the best piece I've got.' Orders from a table in the dining room, distant and anonymous, all get treated like California-roll preferring women. 'I reserve the best cuts for the bar,' Cole says plainly. 'Wherever you go, you should always sit at the bar.'"
