History Main / CityPeopleEatSushi

Just like a [[KidsHateVegetables distaste for vegetables]] (particularly StockYuck things like broccoli, spinach or Brussels sprouts) is often associated with children, fiction has a tendency to portray those who have not or refuse to eat sushi as either uncultured or old fashioned. This is especially common in stories where [[CountryMouse people from the country or small towns]] are taken out to eat by their {{city mouse}} or coastal friends/relatives, only to be disturbed that they're being fed uncooked fish; whether we sympathize with them depends on the writer. Also expect them to accidentally eat too much wasabi, usually by mistaking it for guacamole. In contrast, liberal upper-middle class 20-somethings adore sushi, at least according to sitcom land. And finally, expect no one to mention that California rolls, which are served at all sushi places, contain no raw fish. In fact, the term "sushi" refers to the sticky, vinegared rice and does not ''have'' to include raw fish ("sashimi") by definition; it can also be filled or topped with cooked meats, seafoods and vegetables. Again, though, don't expect this to be pointed out in a lot of fiction, where even today "sushi" and "raw fish" are still used interchangeably quite often.

Of course nowadays, sushi is getting less exotic due to greater cultural knowledge and acceptance, and city folks have moved on to trendier and healthier foods such as "vegan sushi with avocado everywhere" or whatever they post on social media that day, and given the improvements to technology like social media that exchanges culinary information and flash-freezing techniques that makes food fresher for long travel, sushi is gaining a bit more acceptance in rural areas, making it accessible to landlocked areas. But this classic trope lives on.

* One anti-Howard Dean political advert from 2004 had "sushi-eating" among the other liberal epithets (alongside "latte-drinking", "Volvo-driving" and so on).
* An ad from [[TheNineties the late 90s]] for 10-10-220 long distance[[note]](for you kids out there, dialing it on a landline phone let you use a different, and presumably cheaper, carrier for long distance calls than your primary)[[/note]] had [[GoodOlBoy Terry Bradshaw]] and Doug Flutie at a sushi restaurant. While Flutie digs in, Bradshaw remarks that when he was growing up they called it "bait" and lets the server know they forgot to cook it.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars 2}}'': At a party in Tokyo, lovable American hick Mater mistakes wasabi for pistachio ice-cream and asks for a big heaping scoop. He then embarrasses himself by rushing to a fountain to wash off the burning sensation from his mouth.

* ''Christian Mingle: The Movie'': Gwyneth takes Patrick (a [[WhiteAngloSaxonProtestant WASP]] who is TwoDecadesBehind) out for sushi. He struggles with the concept and spends an agonising amount of time chewing, tasting and swallowing a piece, only to gasp with relief once it's down his throat.

* ''Series/TwoBrokeGirls'': Upper class Caroline can't believe that lower class Max hasn't tried sushi.
* ''Series/TheNanny'': Fran is taken out for sushi for the first time and piles a lot of wasabi onto one piece, because she's told it's "like mustard" and she loves mustard. It literally knocks her on the floor, and temporarily opens her sinuses to the point where she loses her [[CuteButCacophonic distinctive voice]] for a few lines.

* Made fun of in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' when Eva is flirting with Snake, and asks him to take her somewhere nice to eat once the mission is done. Eva, being a refined NSA codebreaker used to high class trendy food, suggests sushi, which is "all the rage". Snake, the ExtremeOmnivore who's not adverse to eating raw meat while in the forest, is all for the idea once she explains it's made of raw fish. Given [[Creator/HideoKojima the creator of the games]] is Japanese himself...

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/BigCityGreens'' has [[CountryMouse the Greens]] visit a sushi restaurant, as Bill believes them to be the archetypal city restaurants. Their {{Jerkass}} waiter takes advantage of Bill's assumption, implying he's nothing but a tourist if he doesn't order an enormous meal of sushi and and eat it all using only chopsticks.

Just like a [[PickyEater distaste for vegetables]] (particularly StockYuck things like broccoli, spinach or Brussels sprouts) is often associated with children, fiction has a tendency to portray those who have not or refuse to eat sushi as either uncultured or old fashioned. This is especially common in stories where [[CountryMouse people from the country or small towns]] are taken out to eat by their {{city mouse}} or coastal friends/relatives, only to be disturbed that they're being fed uncooked fish; whether we sympathize with them depends on the writer. Also expect them to accidentally eat too much wasabi, usually by mistaking it for guacamole. In contrast, liberal upper-middle class 20-somethings adore sushi, at least according to sitcom land. And finally, expect no one to mention that California rolls, which are served at all sushi places, contain no raw fish. In fact, the term "sushi" refers to the sticky, vinegared rice and does not ''have'' to include raw fish ("sashimi") by definition; it can also be filled or topped with cooked meats, seafoods and vegetables. Again, though, don't expect this to be pointed out in a lot of fiction, where even today "sushi" and "raw fish" are still used interchangeably quite often.

* ''Literature/AmericanPsycho'': The novel begins with stereotypical New York Yuppie Patrick Bateman eating sushi with his friends. He debates using the soy sauce or not based on its sodium content.

* The short-lived country hit "(He Can't Even) Bait a Hook," by Justin Moore, has a brief mention of this trope, among a long litany of other ways in which the singer's ex's new boyfriend isn't a Real Man[[superscript:[[TradeSnark TM]]]].

* ''Series/TheNanny'': Fran is taken out for sushi for the first time and eats a lot of wasabi, because she's told it's "like mustard" and she loves mustard. It knocks her on the floor, and temporarily opens her sinuses.

* In ''VisualNovel/SpiritHunterNG'', Akira, Seiji, and Kaoru go to a sushi restaurant for their first meal together. Working-class Akira is uncomfortable with the formal food, while Seiji and Kazuki (a {{Yakuza}} heir and a popular {{idol|singer}} respectively) are much more at ease.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars 2}}'': At a party in Tokyo, Mater mistakes wasabi for pistachio ice-cream and asks for a big heaping scoop. He then embarrasses himself by rushing to a fountain to wash off the burning sensation from his mouth.

Just like a [[PickyEater distaste for vegetables]] (particularly StockYuck things like broccoli, spinach or Brussels sprouts) is often associated with children, fiction has a tendency to portray those who have not or refuse to eat sushi as either uncultured or old fashioned. This is especially common in stories where [[CountryMouse people from the country or small towns]] are taken out to eat by their {{city mouse}} friends/relatives, only to be disturbed that they're being fed uncooked fish; whether we sympathize with them depends on the writer. Also expect them to accidentally eat too much wasabi, usually by mistaking it for guacamole. In contrast, liberal upper-middle class 20-somethings adore sushi, at least according to sitcom land. And finally, expect no one to mention that California rolls, which are served at all sushi places, contain no raw fish. In fact, the term "sushi" refers to the sticky, vinegared rice and does not ''have'' to include raw fish ("sashimi") by definition; it can also be filled or topped with cooked meats, seafoods and vegetables. Again, though, don't expect this to be pointed out in a lot of fiction, where even today "sushi" and "raw fish" are still used interchangeably quite often.

This trope's existence is likely because sushi falls in a grey area as far as "foreign food" goes in America. Its preparation is still considered strange enough to (believably) alienate some Westerners, yet it's mainstream enough that calling it {{foreign queasine}} would be considered silly (at least in America). This trope would not work, for example, if we replaced "sushi" with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balut_%28food%29 balut]].

* As a general rule, sushi is often seen as the food of yuppies. Thus expect any sitcom about single, middle-to-upper-class white people to have an episode where they all go out to eat sushi.

* TruthInTelevision: The availability of sushi depends heavily on proximity to the ocean and the network of highways, rivers, and air travel needed to get sushi to the places it is eaten. For example: the furthest you can go from the West Coast and get fresh sushi is UsefulNotes/LasVegas and that's only because they have trucks gunning it down the highway to get it in fresh. Coastal locations and transportation hubs are also the natural location of bustling cities. The cities of the West Coast also have large populations of people of Japanese ancestry.
* The aversion to sushi can be chalked up to (yet again) Western misconception about foreign cultures. Most people associate sushi with raw fish. Eating raw fish is, naturally, detestable; [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-39882381 you can't guarantee the raw fish you are being served does not contain parasites]], such as tapeworm cysts - these are normally killed during the cooking process, and that fish had better be ''fresh''. Elderly fish is a cause of food poisoning. The thing is, as noted in the description, sushi actually refers to vinegared rice that the fish is usually eaten with; sushi can be served with anything, as long as it has the rice. Eating the fish without the vinegared rice =/= eating sushi. You simply eat [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sashimi sashimi]] in that case.

* Averted in ''Film/RepoMan'': when the punk crooks are thinking of something criminal-ey to do, one suggests "Let's get sushi -- and not pay!".
* Averted in ''Film/RisingSun'' where tough Los Angeles cop Tom Graham clearly doesn't like sushi. When another cop asks if he wants to eat at a place that has it, he replies, "No thanks. [[DeadpanSnarker If I get a craving for mercury, I'll eat a thermometer]]."

* ''Series/BreakingBad'': Hank gives Marie grief for eating it in one episode (although it's less his disgust of the stuff and more that New Mexico is nowhere near the ocean).

* A ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' article about what it's like growing up a redneck in the [[DeepSouth Southern United States]] mentions this view on sushi. The two major causes the author attributes to it are the South's relatively late adoption of refrigeration and the fact that the local climate is freaking hot and humid (which makes keeping fresh fish even more difficult than other places).

Just like a [[PickyEater distaste for vegetables]] (particularly spinach or Brussels sprouts) is often associated with children, fiction has a tendency to portray those who have not or refuse to eat sushi as either uncultured or old fashioned. This is especially common in stories where people from the country or small towns are taken out to eat by their {{city mouse}} friends, only to be disturbed that they're being fed uncooked fish; whether we sympathize with them depends on the writer. Also expect them to accidentally eat too much wasabi, usually by mistaking it for guacamole. In contrast, liberal upper-middle class 20-somethings adore sushi, at least according to sitcom land. And finally, expect no one to mention that California rolls, which are served at all sushi places, contain no raw fish. In fact, the term "sushi" refers to the sticky, vinegared rice and does not ''have'' to include raw fish ("sashimi") by definition; it can also be filled or topped with cooked meats, seafoods and vegetables. Again, though, don't expect this to be pointed out in a lot of fiction, where even today "sushi" and "raw fish" are still used interchangeably quite often.

* The anti-Howard Dean political advert from 2004 had "sushi-eating" among the other liberal epithets (you know, "latte-drinking", "Volvo-driving" and so on).

* ''Film/TheBreakfastClub'': Rich girl Clair eats sushi for lunch and bad boy Bender thinks it's disgusting.

* As a general rule, sushi is often seen as the food of yuppies. Thus expect any sitcom about single, upper-to-middle-class white people to have an episode where they all go out to eat sushi.

* ''Series/BreakingBad'': Hank gives Marie a little shit for eating it in one episode (although it's less his disgust of the stuff and more that New Mexico is nowhere near the ocean).

* Made fun of in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' when Eva is flirting with Snake, and asks him to take her somewhere nice to eat once the mission is done. Eva, being a refined NSA codebreaker used to high class trendy food, suggests sushi which is "all the rage". Snake, the ExtremeOmnivore who's used to eating raw wildlife in the jungle, is all for the idea once she claims it's made of raw fish.

* A ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' article about what it's like growing up a redneck in the Southern United States mentions this view on sushi. The two major causes the author attributes to it are the South's relatively late adoption of refrigeration and the fact that the local climate is freaking hot and humid (which makes keeping fresh fish even more difficult than other places).

* TruthInTelevision: The availability of sushi depends heavily on proximity to the ocean and the network of highways, rivers, and air travel needed to get sushi to the places it is eaten. For example: the furthest you can go from the West Coast and get fresh sushi is Las Vegas and that's only because they have trucks gunning it down the highway to get it in fresh. Coastal locations and transportation hubs are also the natural location of bustling cities. The cities of the West Coast also have large populations of people of Japanese ancestry.

* TruthInTelevision: The availability of sushi depends heavily on proximity to the ocean and the network of highways, rivers, and air travel needed to get sushi to the places it is eaten. Coastal locations and transportation hubs are also the natural location of bustling cities. The cities of the West Coast also have large populations of people of Japanese ancestry.

* Mentioned in ''Discworld/{{Thud}}'', and given more detail in ''The Compleat Ankh-Morpork City Guide'', a trend amongst the cosmopolitan young dwarfs of the Literature/{{Discworld}}'s big city is sushi ''rat'', bought from Gimlet's Hole Food Delicatessan's new franchise "Yo, Rat!" (a parody of the UK's Yo! Sushi chain).

[[folder: Literature]]

* The aversion to sushi can be chalked up to (yet again) Western misconception about foreign cultures. Most people associate sushi with raw fish. Eating raw fish is, naturally, detestable; [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-39882381 you can't guarante the raw fish you are being served does not contain parasites]], such as tapeworm cysts - these are normally killed during the cooking process, and that fish had better be ''fresh''. Elderly fish is a cause of food poisoning. The thing is, as noted in the description, sushi actually refers to vinegared rice that the fish is usually eaten with; sushi can be served with anything, as long as it has the rice. Eating the fish without the vinegared rice =/= eating sushi. You simply eat [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sashimi sashimi]] in that case.

* TruthInTelevision: The availability of sushi depends heavily on proximity to the ocean and the network of highways, rivers, and air travel needed to get sushi to the places it is eaten. Coastal locations and transportation hubs are also the natural location of bustling cities. The cities of the West Coast also have large populations of people of Japanese-American ancestry.

* TruthInTelevision: The availability of sushi depends heavily on proximity to the ocean and the network of highways, rivers, and air travel needed to get sushi to the places it is eaten. Coastal locations and transportation hubs are also the natural location of bustling cities.

* The aversion to sushi can be chalked up to (yet again) Western misunderstanding regarding what sushi is. Most people associate sushi with raw fish. Eating raw fish is, naturally, detestable; [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-39882381 you can't guarante the raw fish you are being served does not contain parasites]], such as tapeworm cysts - these are normally killed during the cooking process, and that fish had better be ''fresh''. Elderly fish is a cause of food poisoning. The thing is, as noted in the description, sushi actually refers to vinegared rice that the fish is usually eaten with; sushi can be served with anything, as long as it has the rice. Eating the fish without the vinegared rice =/= eating sushi. You simply eat [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sashimi sashimi]] in that case.

* There may be a TruthInTelevision reason for the aversion many people have for sushi, and with good reason. It's not the taste or texture of the stuff. [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-39882381 You can't guarante the raw fish you are being served does not contain parasites]], such as tapeworm cysts - these are normally killed during the cooking process. And that fish had better be ''fresh''. Elderly fish is a cause of food poisoning.
** Which is partly due to a misconception that all sushi is raw fish, confusing it with Sashimi with is sliced raw fish. Sushi refers to the method of rice preparation used in the dish and many sushi dishes use fully cooked fish or no fish at all!