Tariffs are eating all the fun out of sushi

OF ALL developments in the Trump tariffs turmoil, this one probably won’t be sending thousands of people into the streets: High-end sushi aficionados in New York City, who already pay exorbitant prices, may soon be confronted with big increases. It’s a tiny market of diners who can afford the US$950-per-person meal at Masa (service included, but wine’s extra, and you still need to pay the 8.875 per cent New York state sales tax); or, less altitudinously, the US$480 at Shion 69 Leonard Street; or the US$280 at Takeda. These restaurants – most with limited counter seating – serve exquisite fish freshly flown in from Japan’s famous markets. The US was about to impose a 24 per cent duty on this painstakingly curated ingredient. Now, it’s only 10 per cent – though that’s just for the next 90 days and pending negotiations… and, if US President Donald Trump doesn’t change his mind again.

It’s just a problem for the 1 per cent, right? But if these restaurants get priced out of business, that may be an indicator of where the US economy is headed.

Except for Canadian tuna and the clams with which his restaurant makes dashi, Shion owner Idan Elkon says practically all the food served by chef Shion Uino at the elegantly spartan nine-seat counter comes from Japan. That includes the wasabi rhizomes that provide the cuisine’s distinctive horseradish-like bite. It’s cultivated in California and the Pacific Northwest nowadays, but the quality of American wasabi isn’t up to snuff for Japan’s chefs. There is apparently also high-quality wasabi from Ireland, but Elkon doesn’t have a supplier from that country – which, like the rest of the world, is also lashed by Trump’s tariffs. Other delicacies will get costlier: The ankimo – monkfish liver – that chef Uino prefers was priced at around US$128 a pound before the tariffs. A favourite – shiro amadai, a specific type of tilefish from the chef’s hometown of Amakusa – costs US$80 to US$100 a pound.