If you're a foodie, or even just a person who thinks about restaurants, you've probably wondered how seafood eateries in West Coast waterfront cities like San Francisco are dealing with the impact of the Japan Earthquake. That's exactly the question asked of Susan Schuster, a cook at the famed Sebo Sushi Restaurant at 571 Hayes Street between Laguna and Octavia in San Francisco.
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No, our conversation didn't take place at Sebo, but at a party for the Bay Area Red Cross held 10 days ago. But what's going on with Sebo and with respect to the Japan Earthquake?
"The Earthquake has destroyed a lot of the (fisheries) habitat," Schuster reports. "If you think of what happened in Santa Cruz (referring to the damage after that earthquake), it's happened on a much, much larger scale in Japan." Susan says that almost all of Sebo's fish comes from Japan, she says and it's "fresh, not frozen."
But even though the owners and chefs at Sebo didn't expect to get fish, because of the port damage and power loss, the rolling blackouts have allowed fresh fish to be delivered. So as of this writing, Sebo's fish supply was not impacted by the events in Japan.
What about the radiation? "It's a eventually a fear, but is currently not a fear." At the time of this video the radiation threat was more talk than reality, but now it's fully upon us. In the video, Susan says that they don't expect fish to be at all ready or available or under those circumstances. "It's definitely something we're concerned about," she said. "Currently, the fish we're getting is from no where near that area."
But she wants it to be known that Sebo has been getting fish, and "It's still beautiful quality." But since this video was made ten days ago, it's best to call Sebo at (415) 864-2181.