India + Sushi = True Love Forever? Evidence of the World-Wide Culinary Evolution

No, hell is not freezing over. But the rumor is true: India has adopted Sushi as the new food craze. Raw-fished sushi is a rising trend in a land where the concept of raw fish consumption would top the tales of terror.

Sushi is just starting to become more widely available in urban areas across India. And while the USDA estimates up to 42% of the Indian population is vegetarian and would never be open to eating sashimi (raw fish), that still leaves the meat-eaters in majority and clearly their palettes are evolving. There are also certain styles of sushi that the sushi-loving-Indian is gravitating towards, such as Norimaki (raw fish wrapped in rice wrapped in seaweed).

Most recently, sushi has attracted spot-light attention with upscale Japanese restaurants opening in India’s major cities. Megu is adding New Delhi and Mumbai to its roster of global locations. And just this past November, Nobu Matsuhisa, the renowned chef proprietor of the Nobu and Matsuhisa restaurants, flew out a team of 26 chefs, managers and service staff from London, plus all the equipment needed, to convert a Mumbai restaurant into a Nobu dining experience (a sit-down dinner at Nobu ranges from $600 to $1,200 per head). While Food Network’s Iron Chef, Masaharu Morimoto, has already established his Japanese restaurant, Wasabi, at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, which has received critical acclaim. Some of the other well-known restaurants with sushi bars in India include “Three Sixty” at the Oberoi Hotel in New Delhi, “Harajuku” in the O Hotel in Pune, and “Tetsuma” in Mumbai.

This is just another example of how the culinary evolution is spreading across the world at light-speed. If India can embrace the Sushi Revolution, imagine all of the possibilities that behold the future of the human civilization as a whole...

I can’t wait.