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Just about the last thing I would want to do is eat sushi at the same table as Tony Bourdain. His noted peevishness with Western violations of the etiquette for proper sushi-eating would make such an outing torture for all the gaijins in range of his chopsticks. (Do not mix wasabi paste into your ramekin of soy sauce. Do not dredge your sushi through the soy sauce like a fry through ketchup. Do not spear anything with your chopsticks. Sushi is served fish-side-up, but should be eaten fish-side-down. “California rolls” are strictly for amateurs. And more, so beware -- Chef Tony is watching you.)
Bourdain’s strident devotion to a set of sushi-eating traditions as rigid as a yakuza’s will is one of his signature contributions to his first comic book, “Get Jiro!”
incorporates other Bourdain obsessions for obscenely rare carnivorous delicacies and traditional French ones, works on several levels. It’s also a gory, macho adventure with a high body count, and an acerbic, pointy jab at foodies of both stripes -- the locavore and the epicurean.
Jiro is a retired yakuza and a sushi chef with devastating knife skills. In the Los Angeles of the future, he’s caught in the middle of a gangland war. On one side, the locavore/vegan/artisanal/organic/seasonal-ingredients-only sanctimonious types; on the other, the guiltless, selfish, epicurean carnivores who’ll cook and eat the last of an endangered species if it looks succulent.
Both sides want to recruit Jiro, a new-dude-in-town whose way around fatty tuna and sticky rice could translate into good business for them. (It’s reminiscent of various classic Japanese samurai films, and to American audiences, various Western remakes like “A Fistful of Dollars,” starring Clint Eastwood). In Bourdain’s cheeky future, the foodies aren’t minorities jostling for attention, but established criminal empires that have divvied up the city. The epicures control the city center, and have made reservations at the toniest spots so hot they’re literally worth killing for. The militant vegans are just as stuffy in their way, and their nose-ringed number have turned another chunk of the city into a politically correct strip of eateries with names like “Fiber Chef.” The outer ring is filled with greasy fast-food joints peopled by the tubby obese. Bourdain, who pulled no punches in his engaging breakthrough memoir “Kitchen Confidential,” is not subtle.
Which side Jiro chooses is secondary. Bourdain, co-writer Joel Rose, and artist Langdon Foss (illustrations at right) often seems more interested in graphically rendered beheadings. Consider yourself warned. Bourdain, seeming to live vicariously through his hero Jiro, even makes a joke about turning a man’s severed arm into a galantine. More salient is a reference by Bourdain to Ho Chi Minh, who supposedly trained as a pastry chef under Escoffier in England before becoming a military leader and eventually the prime minister of Vietnam. Like Bourdain, he learned French traditions and then learned how to break them – violently.
Bourdain reminds readers of his taste for the exotic, chronicled in his TV show “No Reservations,” with references to elvers, or young eels. The very expensive delicacy is killed by dipping a bit of tobacco into their tank and then cooking and eating them immediately. More bizarre is a scene involving ortolan, a bird which is eaten with both dish and diner under a large napkin to enhance its aroma, and another featuring the maguro bocho, a 60-inch knife (at left) used in wholesale tuna markets, but here employed for much grimmer ends.
As a love letter to French and Japanese culinary traditions, “Get Jiro!” is unlike any other graphic novel you’re likely to find. As a blood-soaked tribute to the goriest of samurai films, it’s not for everyone. But despite being set in the future, its wry jabs at the foodies at both ends of the moral spectrum make it a document of our food-obsessed times -- and par for the course from this cynical, wiseassed, enfant terrible chef and author.
“Get Jiro!” By Anthony Bourdain, Joel Rose, and Langdon Foss Vertigo Comics $24.99 Available at Star Clipper Comics & Games 6392 Delmar 314-725-9110 starclipper.com
