The cultural history of crabsticks

[nuppe]

I didn't now about this subforum. Maybe it's the right one for me? Though Japan forrum(the craddle of crabsticks) has been most helpful and useful. The first reader was shocked when I tried to ask a surimi/crabsticks question in France.

But: I want to write the story of surimi(= kamaboko=crabsticks), which actually begins in medieavel Japan and might end up in your own fridge. I want to follow the surimi to Kyoto, Alaska, Seattle, France, Thailand, Estonia and wherever there is a story to tell, a stick to taste or a development. Don't hesitate if you have a story or a hint.

[chappie]

I spent summer 1997 working on a surimi processing vessel off the northwest tip of Washington, in a place called Neah Bay. We used hake, a crappy, mass-schooling, mushy fish, to which things like sorbitol, beef blood plasma and sugar were added in the factory.

It was a half-Japanese-owned company, and I can tell you more about the experience on the boat, but not much about eating it. I don't much enjoy surimi.