Sexy foods to share with your Valentine: #8 Sushi

beautiful sushi

There is something particularly primal about raw food.

The food seems uninterrupted, without scar. The intimate experience of food as pure as food can be, close still, to the place it came from. It seems innocent in a way that cooked food doesn’t. The colors of fresh fish are brilliant when served raw: deep flushed reds. Pure, unclouded oranges. Delicate, feminine pinks.

Sushi in particular is sexy because although it is raw, the love and commitment it takes to prepare sushi is equivalent to the love any Italian mother puts into her homemade sauce.  Have you ever sat at the sushi bar of a first class sushi restaurant? The chefs pat the food when they finish, as if to ease the tension.  They don’t cut the fish, they caress the cut they need from the fish, and they gently put it together with the same light touch of a painter. The sushi chef is truly an artist.

But its more than the preparation and vibrant color that makes sushi sexy. Its the inherently communal act of eating sushi. From the moment a sushi platter arrives, there is nudging and negotiating. Together, the diners work through the feast, pacing one another similarly, daintily dipping and reaching. But often, sushi pieces are such that it must be enjoyed with gusto! Lacking a cutting utensil leaves no choice but to fully commit to each piece. Its hard not to look someone in the eye when they are fervently enjoying their food; seeing instantaneously the joy of the moment.

Its combination of primal food and a shared experience which makes sushi so sexy. Its the love that goes into the unadulterated food. Its the zeal of the meal. This is what makes sushi a sexy food.

Technorati Tags: japanese, romantic, Sexy, sushi, Valentine's Day