This story will sadden you if you like sushi.

http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_7836.shtml

Now, do you think they might do something about leaving a paella open on the top of a bar for everyone to sneeze on? I'm sure that is why I currently have horrible food poisoning; I haven't had raw fish in years.

It just seems to me that Spanish bars have a lot more important hygiene issues than the serving of raw fish.

Damian

quote:

This story will sadden you if you like sushi

thanks for the warning, i won't click that link then

saludos,
jer...

This has been the case in the US for quite a while. Virtually everything is frozen first or lightly smoked.

Most tuna and other fish that contain parasites (I worked in a sushi bar, trust me, you don't want to know) is already flash frozen at very low temperatures to kill the critters. Only those who eat the very best of the best would be touched by this... And at a less than the best place, I think I would prefer that it be flash frozen. If there's a chance that it's more than a day old, then you are much better off with a freshly unfrozen bit.

At least they don't seem to treat the fish with carbon monoxide here to make even the oldest fish turn a fluorescently bright (and supposedly "fresher") color.

Damian,

Sorry to hear about the food poisioning thing. I've been there before. It's not only sushi, think of the summe time in Madrid and how you can get sick off the TORTILLA ESPANOLA that's been sitting in the hot bar, or even a dessert with cream, that has just been roasting in hot conditions. I am very careful about eating out anywhere and I don't eat raw fish at all. Personal choice, nor do I touch runny eggs.

We have to be careful with all foods now. There have been two big scares here in the US, and people are a little concerned. One health inspector blames it on all of the food that we import and how much of it doesn't undergo rigourous inspections. Who knows?

Thanks for posting that linkand I know that there will always be people eating sushi.

Hope you feel better,

Shawn

i for one will not stop eating sushi due to this. i will of course ask at the restaraunt if the fish has been frozen first.

also, you can eat nice sushi without having the raw variety.

try some california rolls (one of ena and my faves), they are awesome and contain no raw fish but sea legs (aka "imitation crab") instead.

saludos,
jer...

Jer, would you please think about the children?

I forgot all about the California rolls. They are delicious. I like veggie Sushi also.

Shawn

I have to agree with jer (agree with jer? I must be more ill than I thought), non-raw fish sushi is better than the raw fish variety. Call me a heathen, but I've had sushi a few times and still always go back to Tesco's 1.99 version, which is just rice, seaweed and your standard tinned tuna or smoked salmon. I just posted the link because I think I read people discussion sushi before on here.

I'm sure the ruling is important, but I just think uncovered food in tapas bars poses more of a risk to our health.

Damian

p.s. Thanks Shawn, but this bout of food poisoning isn't so bad. Worse was the dodgy chicken that gave me salmonella when i was 12 , the saveloy from the chip shop in Leamington three years ago and the 'gastro enteritis' in Marbella last year which actually turned out to be a burst appendix.
p.p.s. jer: you'll ask if it is frozen - because you WANT it to be frozen for the health reasons, or you DON'T want it frozen for the taste reasons in the article?

Well, at least you lived to tell about it. I agree that we have to be careful with food no matter where we go. Even if we prepare it at home we have to maek sure that it's cooked properly.

A great day to all,

Shawn

there was a story on the news yesterday that a team of researchers at the university in alcala are working on a solution to the pesky critter that lives in the raw fish....of course, they were not inspired by sushi, but by BOQUERONES EN VINAGRE!!!
i didn't catch the whole story but it finished with the researchers dipping toothpick into a big plate of boquerones and eating them up....

Hola todos,

I thought that I might just as well add to this discussion about raw and/or undercooked food items in general, and not just because of all of the numerous rumours (UK) rumors (US) going around concerning the eating of Sushi (raw, and Semi-raw fish snacks) but also because I have done a little research on this subject in the distant past, and again more recently, and have discovered that there is an appalling (world-wide) level of food poisoning, both reported and un-reported or confirmed and included as part of the world wide statistics, meaning that many instances of food induced sickness e.g. vomiting, diarrhoea, et cetera, are just simply not being recorded and or investigated, which would suggest that the problem is far greater than is currently perceived in the media.

If you would care to do a little research on this matter, I think you will find that some of the “official” accounts of various instances of food poisoning outbreaks around the world, by the W.H.O. (world-health-organisation) and many, many other departments, will really make you sit up and pay attention to what goes into your stomach 365 days a year, some of the reports are quite shocking, especially in cases of child food poisoning, as when/if a child has to experience an episode of violent spasms of projectile vomit and/or diarrhoea, it surely must be one of the most distressing & upsetting episodes of sickness that any child or parent could go through, I threw-up a few times as a kid, and that was bad enough, and I know what it is like to go through it as an adult, but much, much worse, ending up in hospital for a few weeks, since then I’ve been extremely careful about the places that I eat in, especially in Spain, which is another thread entirely, and one debate that I don’t want to get into, but in my professional opinion, the distribution and dishing-up of bacteria in many eating establishments all over Spain, is quite appalling, some of the practices that I have seen here would make your hair curl, but like I said, that’s already been discussed on this forum somewhere around, and perhaps it’s time to revive that thread, as we near Christmas and all the extra stomach filling that we all do at this time of year, but me personally, I’m going to be doing some fasting again this year, and give my stomach a rest until the new year.

As for Sushi, I've had some in past years, but am not keen on it, I like seafood snacks that have been properly cooked, with one exception, I do like smoked Salmon, which I guess is kind of raw in a way, but I've never had a problem with it before.

Check out this article on E-coli food poisoning……. The raw and the cooked - MayoClinic.com E. coli — A look at symptoms and ways to prevent this serious infection. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/e-coli/DG00005

And, on an un-related matter, take a look at this article about that type of FAT (s) that you are consuming, its pretty interesting stuff, (the article that is, not the fat of course). Trans Fats - http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/trans-fat/CL00032

Ciao,

Ángelo.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Even the
cleverest formulas
are worthless
without the
animating spark
of genius,
a quality for
which there is
no formula,
only Serendipity"

Angelo,

Thanks for that insight, but now we have to tell people how to cook food properly? That's just insane.

I personally choose to eat at home where I can fix things the way that I want to as long as I want to. Even when I did eat meat, it was always done in the middle. Don't like things bleeding on my plate. This is not to put anyone else down either, but raw or undercooked food just doesn't go in my tummy.

This is turning out to be an interesting discussion and thanks for posting the links. I enjoyed reading the articles.

Saludos,

Shawn

Thanks Shawn, glad you like the articles, scary though they may be, it is something that we all need to be and should be well aware of in the 21 century, and it is disturbing to discover that there is still a problem of widespread outbreaks of food poisoning in this day & age, that public health inspectors are still finding places in many countries that are found to have problems with cockroaches & mice.

I saw a program earlier this year that was about a team of inspectors in a city in New Zealand, and they kept coming across one Oriental fast food outlet after another, that had major problems with cockroaches, rats, and mice, and one of the Chinese take-away places were keeping chicken breasts in a "HAND BASIN" it was abosultley stinking, and another place had some small pies sitting in a warm place, when they should have delivered either hot, or cooled & kept in a fridge before being delivered, and they had to order them to throw them away, as they were going to deliver them anyway.

Well anyway, I'm sure you all know pretty well what goes on out there in fast food land, all I can tell you is be careful, the very last thing any expat wants while living abroad, is a vile dose of food poisoning, something like that could end up costing an expat hundreds of euros to put right, not to mention many weeks of lost earnings.

There is a thread in here somewhere, I've posted some links on it a while back, I'll try to find it and revive it again sometime.

Ciao 4 now.

Ángelo.
--------------------------------------------------------------

Angelo,

I agree that we do have to be very careful, even with food that we buy in the market. We have to cook it properly and make sure that it is fit for consumption. I have dealt with food poisioning before and it's not pretty.

Have a great weekend,

Shawn

NOOOOOO WAAAAYYYY!

I agree with the restauranteers. This debate has sparked concerns when it shouldn´t have. They´ve just made it more alarming to people that already stress enough about everything that is going on today! This bacteria won´t kill us, and its not THAT common. Besides, nobody can agree really on how long it should be frozen, and by the way, the temperature that things have to be frozen at require industrial freezers, because we all know that all of have one of those at home!

The Sushi debate, there is a little known trick to outsiders, Wasabi exists for a reason other than to clear out your nasal passages!!!!! The scoop: Wasabi has a component that kills the bacteria, which is why its always served with sushi. For those who the taste is to strong for them, a helpful hint: mix it with the soy sause in the dish and it dilutes the taste, you dip your sushi in it and its just as yummy as ever!

We have a long tradition in spain of fresh food, and I for one don´t want us to become just frozen food markets. Its our culture and our taste buds that can suffer, I say BRING IT ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Espe3,

No one is debating fresh food in general. We are talking about sushi. Not all fresh food in general.

Have you actually been to a supermarket lately and seen the younger generation buying a lot of frozen food because they claim that they don;t have time to cook? It's happening all over the world. I cannot tell you the number of students that I have had where both the wife and husband work and they say the frozen entreés are quicker than preparing a home cooked meal, but that's a nother topic.

So, in general, the fresh food market isn't under a threat. I think that people are changing based on the daily living pressures that they have to face. As the frozen entreés increase, so will people buying them.

Shawn