You know the story. A Tik Tok food critic, Keith Lee, with a gazillion followers visited a local sushi joint, FOB Sushi Bar, ate some raw fish, and gave the experience a mostly positive review. But before FOB Sushi could enjoy the boom of a “Keith Lee Effect,” his fans claimed they saw a worm or something move in a piece of sushi he consumed. I do not want to go into whether there was worm or not, and besides I think we should eat more insects (and let me not get into how much I miss eating the hairy caterpillars sold in markets in and around Gaborone, Botswana), but the controversy was so loud, so viral, so relentless that it forced FOB Sushi Bar to close “Until Further Notice” its Seattle and Bellevue locations on Nov 19.
The business cautiously reopened on December 4. Was the smoke clear? Would people come? I did, and for the first time. I had never even heard of FOB Sushi Bar until it was trashed on social media. Also, I’m not a sushi fan in general because few restaurants actually do it well (big ups to Maneki for spoiling/schooling me), and those that don’t aren’t worth the trouble. I can eat a mediocre burrito or bowl of phở, but not a plate of sushi. And that is exactly what I ate at FOB Sushi Bar (so-so sushi), which sells its variety of pieces by the weight ($14.99 per pound). This is sushi for the masses. Sushi to make you full. Sushi that neither excites or disappoints. And, if truth be told, I think the sushi served at the QFC in Harvard Market is a touch better.
That was my experience. I left the reopening, which was busy with young and old people showing their support (“glad to see you are back”), and returned my thoughts to Hawking radiation. It is amazing that here, on the edge of a black hole, the general theory of relativity, quantum physics, and thermodynamics meet. That’s truly something. And it’s made possible by nothing. And nothing is not, it turns out, nothing at all.
I’m disappointed that there isn’t even a single reference to Marx or Hegel in this review.
Actually Charles, we’d love to hear how you prepare and season hairy Botswanan caterpillars, and what wine (or beer) you would pair it with.
Oh no, they’e been decimated by drought – this video is four years old, hopefully things have improved.
They’re prepared into stews. That calls for beer.
Botswana’s edible caterpillars decimated by drought | AFP
https://youtu.be/3ikKYjBTiEU
‘And nothing is not,
it turns out,
nothing
at all.’
sucked
into the
Abyss of
Nothingness
we go Willingly
tho Many
may complain,
I mean, the taste and good judgement of TicToc-ers is by definition dubious at best. I love that they are attracted en masse to the poor-to-middling and other shiney objects. It makes them easy to avoid, and protects the good from spoilage. Shhh… elitism is a gift.
@3. This is bad news for sure…
Charles should open a restaurant that serves bugs to the ecologically minded in Seattle. It would quickly go viral.
@7
bugs
& bones
& Bezos could
have his Iguana
& maybe Eat it too.
I’ll
have the
Broasted chicken.
“Sushi for the masses”. I’m proud that Charles is finally an elitist like many of us. 🙂