'Inauthentic' cuisine worse than the Holocaust, say Oberlin College students

[Metaphor]

Interpreting "fresh" as "raw" is an interpretation,

Interpreting 'not fresh' as 'rotten' is also an interpretation -- and a big leap, considering the unmistakeable smell and health risks rotten fish poses.

not what "fresh" means. Your tertiary source paraphrases the actual quote above into "raw" but that is not the primary source quotation.

There is no actual quote. This is what the Oberlin source says:

The sushi is anything but authentic for Tomoyo Joshi, a College junior from Japan, who said that the undercooked rice and lack of fresh fish is disrespectful.

Are contending that the student was complaining about rotten fish? I think you've misinterpreted the meaning of 'fresh'. Things can be not fresh (e.g. frozen, canned, etc) without being 'rotten'.

Japanese culture does include some cooked seafood sometimes as part of sushi, such as the examples I already gave: tempura and grilled eel can be included inside sushi rolls. You could also get some crispy salmon skin. So interpreting "fresh" as "raw" is inconsistent with reality. Also, both comments are about incompetent preparation of food, not preferences.

No, it's not 'inconsistent with reality' but rather it is the natural reading of the text.

But even sushi with undercooked rice and 'not fresh' fish is not 'disrespectful' to Japanese culture. It's just incompetently made food.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

I will add in addition to the myriad of examples already given, the shrimp is steamed.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

If these students were to watch some YouTube videos about what goes into the making of cafeteria food, they'd know that calling it "culturally insensitive" is the least of the problems they should be having with it.

 

[Metaphor]

After you taste it you can tell, but no, they absolutely meant what they said, "fresh" not raw since not all fish in sushi is raw in Japan. I gave specific examples already. I will add that there are grilled fish sushi bars in Japan as well and that while tradition is a cultural aesthetic in Japan so is originality and innovativeness.

"Complaints against ‘Bon Appétit,’ the college's food management company, include serving under-cooked sushi rice, and cooked sushi fish instead of raw"

That is an interpretation based on the primary source comment which said "fresh" and it is an incorrect interpretation because of the reasons already cited: primarily that Japan does not exclusively have raw fish in sushi.

It beggars belief that the cafeteria served rotten fish, as you contend, without a huge uproar and hospitalisations.

The primary source does not put the words you are talking about in inverted commas, meaning it is not a direct quote.

Further, the fact that people can misunderstand what sushi is supposed to be should come as no surprise, so your contention that 'sushi must contain only raw fish' as being inconsistent with reality is irrelevant.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

The sushi is anything but authentic for Tomoyo Joshi, a College junior from Japan, who said that the undercooked rice and lack of fresh fish is disrespectful.

fresh
fresh
fresh
fresh
fresh
fresh

But even sushi with undercooked rice and 'not fresh' fish is not 'disrespectful' to Japanese culture. It's just incompetently made food.

When you don't care about your presentation of someone's culture, they might actually consider it disrespectful.

 

[thebeave]

If these students were to watch some YouTube videos about what goes into the making of cafeteria food, they'd know that calling it "culturally insensitive" is the least of the problems they should be having with it.

Heh. I'll never forget waiting in line at my dorm cafeteria for dinner while the food server was serving food from the big stainless steel trays. I saw a cockroach go scurrying along the counter next to the food trays. I yelled out at the server and he just swatted it with the spatula he was holding (the same one he was serving food with) and killed it. Just casual, like he was playing whack-a-mole at the carnival or something. I was waiting to see if he was going to continue serving with the same spatula, but he got a new one. At least he had some notion of hygiene. I remember thinking, this guy is just like that chef in the Beetle Bailey comic, except without the wife beater shirt and cigar dangling from his mouth.

 

[Metaphor]

fresh

Not a quote. In an article that has inverted commas to indicate someone's actual words, the lack of inverted commas around that sentence indicates sloppy and misleading 'journalism', or that it's not a direct quote.

Also, 'not fresh' does not equal 'rotten'.

 

[ksen]

Also, 'not fresh' does not equal 'rotten'.

So you'd happily buy fish advertised as 'not fresh'?

 

[Metaphor]

Also, 'not fresh' does not equal 'rotten'.

So you'd happily buy fish advertised as 'not fresh'?

I would and do happily buy fish that is frozen, or cooked and canned, like millions of tonnes of fish are sold each year, yes. All of those are 'not fresh'.

Honestly, this is absurd. The idea that Bon Apettit served rotten fish is absurd and is not supported by any evidence. Don2 misinterpreted a non-quote. I get it. I've often not read things closely enough and what I thought it said it didn't actually say.

 

[ronburgundy]

Also, 'not fresh' does not equal 'rotten'.

So you'd happily buy fish advertised as 'not fresh'?

All frozen fish is "not fresh" and tons of "Fresh" fish (which in advertising means only "not frozen" is old, dangerous, bad tasting and full of bacteria. Fish that is flash frozen on the boats when caught is "not fresh", and yet safer and often better tasting than most never frozen fish that can be advertised as "Fresh".

But all that is irrelevant, because the context of the story strongly suggests that if the word "fresh" was even used it was meant to mean "raw" by a moron who doesn't understand that they are not the same and doesn't understand his own culture enough to know that raw is not required for "authentic" sushi (nor is "fresh" for that matter).