Congratulations to Katrina and Michelle! Thanks to Random.org, they're the two winners of the Japan contest. You two will be getting your prizes in the mail soon!

Every year, food bloggers around the world donate bid items in an effort to raise money to benefit the UN World Food Programme. (You can read more about it here.) For every $10 you donate, you get to bid on one of many fantastic items. This year, I've decided to donate a bid item as well.

As many of you know, I cannot rave enough about Mashiko Sushi Restaurant in Seattle, WA, nor can I stop talking about Casson Trenor and his book, Sustainable Sushi: A Guide to Saving the Oceans One Bite at a Time.

Casson has been amazing enough to donate a signed copy of his book, and even better, I'm also throwing in a gift certificate to Mashiko.

To Donate and Enter the Menu for Hope Raffle

Here's what you need to do:

1. Choose a bid item or bid items of your choice from our Menu for Hope main bid item list. If you want a chance at Casson's book and a Mashiko gift certificate, our bid item code is UW42.
2. Go to the donation site at Firstgiving and make a donation.
3. Please specify which bid item you'd like in the 'Personal Message' section in the donation form when confirming your donation. You must write-in how many tickets per bid item, and please use the bid item code. Each $10 you donate will give you one raffle ticket toward a bid item of your choice. For example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for EU01 and 3 tickets for EU02 - 2xEU01, 3xEU02.
4. If your company matches your charity donation, please check the box and fill in the information so we could claim the corporate match.
5. Please check the box to allow us to see your email address so that we can contact you in case you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone.

Check back at Chez Pim on Monday, January 18 for the results of the raffle.

Thanks for your participation, and good luck in the raffle!

Uninspired. That's how I've felt lately, when it comes to sushi. Or, more specifically, when it comes to writing about sushi. My love of sushi is no less, nor has my desire to share this love with all of you diminished any. But it's been months since I've brought you a recipe here on Sushi Day, and even then posting has been sporadic for nearly a year now.

Spicy Tuna Roll - mayonnaise, hot chile paste, hot chile oil, toasted sesame oil, tuna, wasabi paste, green onion, toasted black sesame seeds, in rice paper wrappers

It's not for lack of material - I have pictures of sushi that I made all the way back in March that I never wrote about. Nor is it for lack of time - though I'm incredibly busy with work and play, I could have easily made time to put up a short post. And it certainly isn't a loss of interest in my blog or my readers - there has been an immense amount of guilt as days turned into weeks without a post, which turned into months of near silence here on Sushi Day.

Pacific Ocean Roll- smoked salmon, avocado, bacon

What it all comes down to is that the sushi I had made just didn't excite me. Oh yay, another spicy tuna roll. Whoopidee do dah, more shrimp tempura. Everything felt like something I'd done before - after nearly three years of sushi recipes, another California roll spin-off starts to get pretty damn boring.

Pink Panther Roll - salmon, avocado, tamago, wrapped in rice paper

So I would procrastinate. I don't want to put you asleep while reading my posts, I want you to hang onto my every word like I do with Shauna's posts, or Keri's, or Helen's. I know, I know, I have a long way to go. But I can't stand blogs that only give you a recipe without any interesting descriptions or anecdotes... and since I couldn't come up with any for sushi that bored me half to death, I just kept putting it off.

Too Crazy Roll - tuna, pesto

Then I was invited up to Seattle to go to the Sustainable Sushi Dinner at Mashiko. Oh, Mashiko. Did I mention that Hajime and I exchanged shirts (no, not like that!)? I sent him a Sushi Day shirt, and he sent me a sushiwhore.com (Mashiko's website) shirt. Fits perfectly. Anyways. Son and I got to go to this dinner, where we got to meet the very awesome Hajime Sato and the very cool Casson Trenor, and learn all sorts of things that I never knew at all about sushi and sustainability and seafood. Obviously, I loved the trip.

Unicorn Roll - tempura shrimp, cucumber, imitation crab, topped with spicy tuna

But then I come back home, all excited about sustainability and trying all these new types of seafood, and look at the pictures of sushi that I have yet to post. Tuna - not bluefin, of course, but still. Imitation crab - once a great choice, now not so much. *sigh* I just couldn't, in my good conscience, continue a series of posts that used some ingredients that, in terms of sustainability, aren't things I should promote.

Bam Roll - tempura shrimp, mayonnaise, green onions, tomato, hot chile oil topped with spicy tuna, eel sauce, sesame seeds.

But... I feel terrible depriving you all of the remaining sushi that I've made. Which is why I've posted all the pictures in this post, along with the ingredients that go into each roll. I've told you hundreds of times how to put together a roll of sushi... I'm sure you can figure it out from ingredient lists by now. I've also put up a separate post for each of these rolls with just the recipes (click the pictures to get to the posts), because Son insisted so you could see all the extra beautiful photographs he put so much work into for each roll.

TNT Roll - tuna, tomato, Tabasco sauce

So. What do I intend to do now, since I no longer have a queue of rolls lined up for me to post about? Make more sushi, of course. This time trying to be more sustainable, more inventive, more fun. Will the occasional tuna roll sneak in? My apologies in advance, I'm not (quite!) perfect. Might you see a California roll knock off or two? Perhaps, but they'll have to be really freaking amazing California rolls. But most importantly, what you'll see is me. Having fun. Doing what I do best as a food blogger... bringing you tons of sushi.

So hopefully you haven't gone too far away, because... the sushi girl is back, and ready to roll!

Bling-Bling Roll - imitation crab, mayonnaise, spicy tuna, avocado, drizzled with eel sauce.

Allison: So how did you get into the business of sustainability with seafood... how did you get started with that?

Casson: I get asked that question a lot and I just don't know the answer. It's just something that happened... it's just something I knew I needed to do. Sometimes I say it's because I grew up on the beach, and I think that's partially true. And sometimes I say it's because I used to be in a lot of restaurants and I saw a lot of waste and it really bothered me, and I think that's true too. And sometimes I say it's just because I really like sushi, and I want it to be around, and I think that's definitely true... I don't know, I just... I just knew it was something that I was gonna do, that I had to do and it just evolved into what it is, and that's a terrible answer, I know.

Allison: That's fine. What do you think is very important for people to know, regarding sustainability?

Casson: That it is incredibly important. That our lives in these next years are going to change drastically, due to how many people are on this planet, and the way that we've been managing it - and that's not something that we can do anything about. Those changes are real, and they are coming, and they're already here, in a lot of ways. And it's not about trying to resist the changes, it's about trying to adapt and to move fluidly through them. Sustainability is a way of life. It's a mantra, for business and just... if we are to continue to exist and be happy in this changing planet, we have to learn how to live with our eyes open, and balance our resources.

Allison: How did you help Hajime revamp the menu and everything, to make it more sustainable?

Casson: That might be a better question for him. I can give you my answer... I think that maybe... I think the thing that I'm proud to say that I was really able to do for this restaurant and for him is to give him the impetus to do what he already knew what he wanted to do. I didn't really have to convince Hajime that sustainability made sense. I didn't have to convince him that he didn't really have to use hamachi, or that these fish were really good also, I mean, I just had to show him that he wasn't alone in thinking the way that he already was. 'Cause his heart was in this stuff long ago, you know? But he was, I think maybe a bit shackled by the fact that there was no one else in the sushi industry that was expressing these ideas, and um, you know it's not surprising. As you know, the sushi industry is extremely ritualized, and very regimented and hierarchical. And it's tough to break the mold, you need a rabble-rouser, and most sushi chefs are not rabble-rousers. Most sushi chefs- 'cause you know, during the development of a sushi chef, that kind of innovation... sure, I mean, innovation is encouraged, but in certain ways, you know what I mean? In other ways it's discouraged. I think... I guess I think I'm... I'm just proud to have helped him be himself.

Allison: What kind of advice can you give to people who really can't imagine giving up all their favorite types of sushi which might not be sustainable?

Casson: First of all, I understand. There are things that I really thought I would miss when I realized I probably shouldn't be eating them as much or at all. My advice I guess would be to, and I talk about this in my book, I've got a few points that I give people when they're trying to make these changes, and the one that I really feel strongly about, well I feel strongly about all of them, but one in particular is... if you do it... if you just go out there and you try to live your values, sometimes you'll find yourself struggling but at the end of the meal, you'll really feel good about it. And if you do it in a group, it makes it much easier to just kind of have that camaraderie, so when you go in there and are like, "alright, we're going to try to have a sustainable meal," then you can help each other do it. 'Cause it's not always easy. Also try not to... I would say don't necessarily try to do it all at once. If you love your bluefin, and your farmed salmon and your eel and your hamachi... go in and replace two out of five the first time. And see, you know, try some new things. Then the next time, replace a different two. And then eventually, after three or four visits try to work your way off of all of them. But explore the menu - don't go in and be like, "I can't eat anything, I hate this"... that's not gonna work.

Allison: Anything else you'd like to say?

Casson: So many things. [laughs] I do this for a lot of reasons. You know, I do this because I believe in it. I do this because it's becoming financially viable. I do this because I see it's a change that needs to be made. I do this because I am very passionate about the ocean. I do this because I'm an environmental activist. But I don't want people to ever get the idea that one of the very most essential primary reasons I do this is not simply that I love sushi. That is so important. And the fact of the matter is that a healthy ocean is what gave birth to this art form. And without a healthy ocean, this art form will die. If we do not steward our resources properly, and this is a critical, critical stage... I cannot over-stress the kind of peril our oceans are in right now. The reasons that these fish... these fish aren't sustainable for very good reasons. You know? Crashing populations, horrible pollution problems, by-catch that you would not believe - millions and millions of tons every year thrown over the side. Horrible. I want my children to be able to eat like this, because it meant so much to me and has formed so much of what I am, and I would really be heartbroken if I knew that it was my generation that stole that from my children, and that cost us this beautiful art form that so many people have put so many years into developing. So sustainable sushi, for the love of sushi.

Wednesday I’ll wrap this all up with a few extra thoughts that both men had about sustainability and the sushi business. Do you have a question about sustainability? Ask in the comments or email me, and I’ll do my best to answer your questions.