[merylsilverburg]

Originally Posted by Panuru

That's maybe because sushi & co. are still considered too much "exotic" and "snobbish", and the majority of people are very diffident, when not skeptical, about it. People prefer more popular tastes, more popular prices, more popular formula to something still unknown to their experience. It's a shame, but it's like this anywhere. Only very big cities with various multicultural influences or more open-minded attitude are usually the places where these kind of things have a discreet success.

Ironically, it's completely different around here, especially in larger places like New York, L.A., etc. Sushi and other things are actually an ongoing trend, something that is "hip" to eat nowadays for health reasons and because it, apparently, makes you look cool doing so. For this reason, the US is now, I think, on the top of the list for fish demands, mainly tuna, to satisfy the large number of sushi and sashimi restaurants as well as the "fusion-style" restaurants (stuff like French-Japanese, Thai-Japanese, etc.). And for this reason, the Japanese has turned to deer meat to put in their sushi as a replacement because they can't get tuna anymore. It's quite depressing really but no surprise. What's more hilarious is the fact that many people claim to "eat sushi all the time" yet they stay away from the more "strange" things like octopus, squid, eel, or fish roe and make a horrid face when you mention it. Then they reach for their California roll.