Overfishing. Mercury. Enslaved fishermen. There are enough ideological pitfalls to sushi consumption already. So when we read Martin’s post earlier today, it made us sad. We just want some eel and spicy tuna rolls; not to support a crazy cultleader‘s bid for world domination via the seafood market. Judging from the comments on the original post, many of you feel the same way.

So DCist Nicole and I made a quick phone survey of some local sushi restaurants and asked which of them bought their supplies from the good reverend’s True World Group supply company. Our harried, informal, and unconfirmed results:

• Cafe Asia used to buy from TWG, but no longer do so. They declined to explain why they made the switch.
• Tono Sushi does indeed roll Unification Church Uramaki — they say their experience with TWG has been “pretty good,” and that they stick with them because of the quality of service, not because Moon’s dreams of sushi monopoly have come to fruition. They also said they had “no idea” about the company’s ties to the church.
• Spices also uses TWG, but only rarely; they tell us that most of their fish comes from New York. They said they only turn to TWG when they have to fill a special request or need a particularly quick turnaround on an order.
• Sushi Ko also uses TWG, and says their experiences have been positive.
• The same goes for Kaz Sushi Bistro.

We tried a few other DC sushi purveyors as well, but we either didn’t get an answer or couldn’t find someone who knew whether their restaurant used True World Group as a supplier. If you get a chance to ask about TWG the next time you visit your favorite sushi outlet, consider taking a moment to record what you find out in the comments to this post.

Photo by Leafblower