Wasabi rush, anyone?
Now you can pick up a box of salmon sushi on a milk run to Acme.
That's right, Philadelphia's own Ac-a-me is serving up sushi. A clear sign that the Japanese specialty has become as mainstream as. . .well. . .Acme.
It wasn't that long ago that sushi was considered bait by most folks living east of L.A. Something in which only daring diners indulged. Now it's as much a part of the accepted culinary lexicon as pasta and stir-fry.
You can even buy the bite-sized rice-and-fish combos at food kiosks in some malls.
What's next? Sushi drive-through?
"Sushi is like eating a salad with rice around it," said Katherine Newell Smith, a Washington, D.C.-based food consultant. "It's what I call poppers - quick food that you can pop into your mouth and not feel guilty about."
It helps, she notes, that most people these days are familiar with Asian food. Even Pottery Barn is selling color-coordinated sushi trays, and ornamental chopsticks have become a collector's item.
Diet-crazed Americans are also enamored of sushi's low calorie quotient.
"We did some market research, and found that sushi went over big with our customer base," said Walter Rubel, Acme's director of government and public affairs, explaining why select Acme stores - like some Genuardi's, Fresh Fields and Shop-N-Bag supermarkets - decided to go sushi.
While the presence of their beloved Japanese treat in local supermarkets may make sushi aficionados throw up their chopsticks in horror, it's a trend that clearly had been in the works for a while.
"I wanted to put in a sushi bar a few years ago, but I wasn't sure it would go over," said Carmen Rone, chef/owner of Tomatoes restaurant in Margate, N.J. "But when I started seeing sushi in supermarkets, I knew my customers were ready for it."
He'll be opening a sushi bar at Tomatoes, which features eclectic "world" cuisine, by the end of the month. To "learn the basics" of his newest offering, Rone took a $2,000 two-week course in sushi preparation at a sushi school in Venice, Calif.
In Japan, a chef can't even pick up a sushi knife for six months, and can spend 10 years studying to become a master, but sushi chefs are in such demand in the United States that places like the Venice school are spitting out near-instant sushi guys.
