The Sushi War
The Sushi Wars in Aspudden started some time around August in 2005, when Café, across from the road from Aspuddens Sushi started with an open act of aggression, The hand-written sign, Daily Sushi 60 kr (crowns) had been tied onto the lamppost by the mini roundabout that spins round the inside of the zone. The zone contains Aspuddens Sushi, the Junk shop, Café and the DVD Games boutique.
So what do you get daily for your 60 crowns?
I’ll tell what the sign says you get.
Daily Sushi, 8 pieces 60 kr
3 Salmon, 1 Prawn, 1 Tofu, 3 Rolls
Todays Lunch 55 kr
Choice of Japanese warm dish
Monday to Friday, 11.00 – 15.00
Miso soup Tea Coffee included.
But the insult goes so much deeper than the offer itself. The fact that such a café, such a sad little brown place, that has survived unchanged since 1972, in all its’ fullest ugliness, should even contemplate sushi is more than a man can stand. The miserable brown décor seeps boredom from every inch of its uninterestingness. You can hear the groans of color as they get sucked into the vortex of a spectra-collapse. The glass-fronted fridge display cabinet, exposes the extremely limited range of uninspired sandwiches, that inevitable include a ring of red bell pepper and a slice of sweating cheese. The bread if that is possible to call it “bread”, what with the European regulations concerning foodstuff, is a white pulpy mass enclosed in what looks like wet brown paper. I believe this brownness is meant to be the outer crust of the bread. It might just as well be spray painted onto the pulpy mass, in the factory, where they produces ten of thousand of these rolls, that make up many an indigestible moment, for the lesser discerning customers, of such establishments, as this sad little Café.
The “taxi yellow” light-sign with the word “SUSHI” leaves no doubt as to the underlying vision of the place in question, it doesn’t bother with names. There is no need to describe anything beyond the basic one-word of what it is. You can buy a coffee and a roll. In todays’ somewhat hysterical marketing age everything is made more exciting by calling them by names that are endless in length and combination, (with several different language bases). So you could be forgiven for imagining that a certain “pureness of thought” might be gleamed from Cafés minimalism, a brief relief from all the creative attempts to help you believe that a long-named cup of coffee is worth twice the price. But the crushing monotoneism of Cafés essence merely reduces things to objects that are unable to hold on to more than a singular description. Coffee and roll, 25 crowns.
There are people who find solace in this particular type of service atmosphere. Many people brought up environments where all “flash and flared” was considered a conceit, would find a real home-from-home feel in Café. People who found any form of attention uncomfortable. People that preferred “non-space” to be in during the in take of food/fuel, before returning to some manual task in the local area. Older people who find the early 1970’s the classic “uninspired period” a blast from the past. Like taking a peek back in time, to when they were in their forties and still looking forward to another twenty odd years of work and they would still be useful. There are many people you could imagine popping into Café who actively seek such an environment that it has to offer. What on the other hand, is beyond all my own possible belief is that any of these type of “punters” would ever require sushi to eat.
Aspuddens Sushi, on the opposite side of the war zone, had once been Aspuddens Grill. It is by no means the most Asian inspired of restaurants when it comes to interior design. The tables and chairs are still the same as they were when it was the Grill, white metal chairs with meshed seats and a cushion. The tables are round with a single leg in the middle that splays out into pipes at the bottom, these pipes functioning as the feet of the table. The sign outside Aspuddens Sushi is the classic restaurant sign form the late 1970’s with a large Danish looking “fisherman come worker” holding onto a gigantic blackboard. It is on this blackboard that all the alternative offers are hand written, you used to be obliged to write in chalk, but they now have white pens, that gives a chalk like impression, but this text you have to wipe off with a wet rag. Which is better otherwise kids would jut wipe their sleeves over it for the fun it. The marquise hanging from the roof still has he words “Aspuddens Grill” written on the front flap if I’m not mistaken.
Aspuddens Sushi has nothing what so ever to do with the ambience of the place, it is the fact that Aspuddens Sushi exists entirely for the preparation, production and selling of Sushi. Laz and Lulle are the two men that brought Sushi to Aspudden. It is there mission and purpose in life, They grew up in Asia, Indonesia or the Philippians, or somewhere like that, and after getting a decent schooling in the “Art of Sushi”, they set off into the hinterlands of the frozen North, to find the spot from which they would start to spread the glorious simplistically divine concept of Sushi. The spot they found ended up being Aspuddens Sushi, just next to the Junk shop.
For those of you that unfamiliar with Aspudden I will paint a quick sketch of the place. Aspudden is in its’ own way very individual, it is a pleasant and rather pretty place. Many of the buildings on the high street are from the early part of the 1900’s. They have their own individuality built into them. They each have their own different topping and roofing design, giving an individual irregularity, which manages to blend easily together into an overall style. The Underground station “Aspudden” is two stops from the beginning of Central Stockholm, if you go by the old “customs gates” of Stockholm (seven stops into Central Station). Aspudden is joined to the main Southern Island of Stockholm by the drawbridge at Liljeholmen. There are three main areas that are considered to be part of the same general theme, Gröndal, Aspudden and Midsommarkransen. Fairly large green areas of both park and heath join these three areas; we even have a large pond, Trekanten, and the lake Mälaren is not more ten minutes walking distance.
During the 60’s these areas got quite run down and many people with serious social problems got moved into the apartments, making the area a nightmare to live in. A general overhaul in the Eighties changed that, they renovated the buildings and moved the junkies further south, deeper in gettoland. Finally the selling off of almost all the “council houses” to tenants, during the last five years has totally redefined these three areas into highly attractive and expensive (but still not “too” expensive areas). Now we have a lot of “thirty-somethings” with newborn children are moving into expensive flats, that they have taken large out mortgages on. There are still the people that moved here during the 80’s with older teenage kids, waiting for their kids to move out so they can sell their flats, make a bundle of money and move to the house they dreamed of, or of into country, or just stay put in Aspudden, sitting on a nice nest egg for the future.
What does not work well in Aspudden are new shops. We are too close to town so the general needs of the local population are really nothing more than the video/sweets/tobacco and DVD shop, a food shop for the basics, a few estate agents, a few hairdressers, a pizza place, a hamburger place, a curry place, a flower shop, a toy shop for small kids, a place you can get a decent cup of coffee and a Sushi bar, (there is a specialist shop for special video camera equipment). Everything else in the way of shops and services, that have tried to establish themselves in Aspudden, just fails after about six months, because nobody buys anything.
Aspudden used to a bit famous for the Tattoo artists “Doc Forest” and his (I think now ex-companion) Mia. But Doc Forest was one of the few tattoo artist in Stockholm in the 70’s, and probably the best known for years, before it became so mega trendy and now you have people and their pulsating pins on every street corner more or less.
Now three years ago when we first saw that the “dingy-diner” Aspuddens Grill was being converted into something new we held out little hope. Aspuddens Grill was one of the low points in the whole place. The only time you went there was on Sunday, around one o’clock, when the hangover was just letting go, and your body screamed for grease to oil all the dehydrated parts of you head. The fat used in the “production” of the meals was the only possible food to calm some the physical effects of last night enjoyments. But when it became clear that we were now to have our own Sushi house right here in Aspudden, we were delighted. What freedom of choice. We no longer had to go over the bridge (two stops or ten minutes in the car) to our favorite Sushi house in Hornstull, Genki. We could now take that stroll down the road pick up the Sushi and return to comfort of our home to enjoy the full delights of Sushi in our kitchen all together.
We went out and bought special square sea green plates with matching soya bowls to be able to serve the sushi, in the only way such delicacies should be treated, gracefully and with a sense of harmony. As it turned out we were far from the only ones delighted by the new developments in the culinary choice of Sushi. It was possible for the first week or two, to go in and order but after three weeks it was impetrative that all orders were phoned in, well in advance if you were to get your sushi. This is normally not a problem beyond a relatively simple planning. Due the cost, which is not extravagant, but more than an average everyday meal at home, Sushi was going to be eaten on a Friday or a Saturday evening. We would simple agree which evening and then agree who ordered for what time and who picked up. I normally arrived home first, ordered and then my wife would make a slight detour, to pick it up the order, on her way home from the Underground.
This was when we began to find out that in some cases you have to be very clear and concise. The two men from Aspuddens Sushi have two very separate jobs; neither does the others ones work. Laz is the Sushi man. He always leans forward, slightly bent over his cool disk, endlessly in slow motion, making piece after piece after piece of sushi. He seldom looks up form his work. He wears an Asian style cooks jacket and a frown. Lulle is the people man; he deals with the crowd, takes the orders, answers the telephone, receives the payment and does the chat. Lulle is the outgoing type with a bowl haircut and very round eyes. He gets the Miso soup into the plastic cups and puts the plastic lock on just before he ties off the unmarked white plastic bag and hands you your parcel of luxury.
It’s Lulle you speak to on the phone when you ordered. They have a set menu of pieces, you say ten pieces and you got like; three rolls, five salmon, one prawn and a tuna, the normal sushi kind of deal. The idea was you said the names (Small, Medium, Large and Luxury) for different combinations and they knew number of pieces, what you wanted and what you got. They had some with other names but you got a menu to take home with you, with the telephone number, and all the relevant information you needed to communicate with them. The name of the set menu, already described in detail, so there was no need to talk about it.
“Aspuddens Sushi” (Lulle when he answers the phone), you then said, “I want to order two large ones please”, to Lulle, he said “two large ones” back at you. “What time?” And you said “7 o’clock”; Lulle hummed a bit and said, “Ok seven o’clock”. If you had said six thirty he would have said seven o’clock, (unless you had phoned at five) you then put the phone down, Lulle wrote this down on his pad, mumbled something to Laz and the ball was rolling.
When it comes to sushi you can have different approaches. You can look at it as a selection of exotic seafood’s that are nice to mix in many ways. You can be as exciting as you like, you can go for the squid or any of the colorful creations that they can create. Some people feel that the set menu system is some carefully created Zen like mixture of quality and properties, so to change such ancient knowledge would be presumptuous. Some care only about the amount of food they get, it’s the numbers that are of interest, 15 bits sounds good. Our own particular approach to sushi, may be considered bland and dull by some, but is based on the simple fact that we both find two of the pieces of sushi to be the finest. Our selection is always Rolls and Salmon.
So when ordering sushi we were in the position of having to change the basic conversation with Lulle, which isn’t easily done. I have no idea how much Swedish Lulle has ever been exposed to in the way of language education. I would presume very little, if any what so ever. The few words that Lulle can put together into sentences, to enable him to survive living in this country are limited to the bare essentials.
Describing to him that we want only the Lax (Salmon) and the Rulla (Rolls), and nothing else, was not an easy task. We had to repeat ten pieces, just Lax and Rulla, two of them, ok. Just Lax and Rulla? Yes just Lax and Rulla. How many you want? Ten pieces, in each, just Lax and Rulla, Lax and Rulla? Yes. After making the same order every weekend for few months Lulle got to know who we were, so he would get it straight away. After that there was never any problem.
I think it was the first time we tried to order this simple menu that Lulle gave us the in depth detailed description of the rising price of tuna fish on the world market, and why we couldn’t get compensation for removing this particular piece of sushi from the set menu. We never wanted any compensation for the tuna replacement. I remember that being one of the only the conversions I have had, when none of the participants had more than a 3% idea of what was being said by the others at any one time.
And now this black cloud. Cafés act of open aggression. The taxi-yellow light sign with the word “SUSHI”. Ok I have seen many a disappointed sushi hunter turn up around seven o’clock on a Friday evening, believing that they could walk into Aspuddens Sushi and out again, with their order of sushi in the next ten minutes. You have to real about stuff like this. Lulle is as clear a crystal. “Have you ordered?” “No”. “It will take, hum over an hour, nine o’clock, you must order first”. “Oh”. They may spend the final seconds staring at the menu before their brains register the information, but they all leave quickly enough. The rest of us that have ordered, are waiting patiently for that “special nod and point” from Lulle when your order is up and ready to go.
How can anyone be so naïve to think you can stroll in here at seven without ordering, are you mad or newly moved in from Mars. Lulle does his point and nod, his arm is like arched into a bow shape movement that ends up with his finger pointing at you. You step up the counter and the deal is done. You pay and walk out with you order of Sushi to go.
Is it these people, these people who don’t order that are now to be catered for in Café. Are they to slip over the round-a-bout, cross the zone (or rather over the two zebra crossings to be on the safe side) and calmly be able to purchase some pre packed selection in a box that says one word on it?
The End
So what do you get daily for your 60 crowns?
I’ll tell what the sign says you get.
Daily Sushi, 8 pieces 60 kr
3 Salmon, 1 Prawn, 1 Tofu, 3 Rolls
Todays Lunch 55 kr
Choice of Japanese warm dish
Monday to Friday, 11.00 – 15.00
Miso soup Tea Coffee included.
But the insult goes so much deeper than the offer itself. The fact that such a café, such a sad little brown place, that has survived unchanged since 1972, in all its’ fullest ugliness, should even contemplate sushi is more than a man can stand. The miserable brown décor seeps boredom from every inch of its uninterestingness. You can hear the groans of color as they get sucked into the vortex of a spectra-collapse. The glass-fronted fridge display cabinet, exposes the extremely limited range of uninspired sandwiches, that inevitable include a ring of red bell pepper and a slice of sweating cheese. The bread if that is possible to call it “bread”, what with the European regulations concerning foodstuff, is a white pulpy mass enclosed in what looks like wet brown paper. I believe this brownness is meant to be the outer crust of the bread. It might just as well be spray painted onto the pulpy mass, in the factory, where they produces ten of thousand of these rolls, that make up many an indigestible moment, for the lesser discerning customers, of such establishments, as this sad little Café.
The “taxi yellow” light-sign with the word “SUSHI” leaves no doubt as to the underlying vision of the place in question, it doesn’t bother with names. There is no need to describe anything beyond the basic one-word of what it is. You can buy a coffee and a roll. In todays’ somewhat hysterical marketing age everything is made more exciting by calling them by names that are endless in length and combination, (with several different language bases). So you could be forgiven for imagining that a certain “pureness of thought” might be gleamed from Cafés minimalism, a brief relief from all the creative attempts to help you believe that a long-named cup of coffee is worth twice the price. But the crushing monotoneism of Cafés essence merely reduces things to objects that are unable to hold on to more than a singular description. Coffee and roll, 25 crowns.
There are people who find solace in this particular type of service atmosphere. Many people brought up environments where all “flash and flared” was considered a conceit, would find a real home-from-home feel in Café. People who found any form of attention uncomfortable. People that preferred “non-space” to be in during the in take of food/fuel, before returning to some manual task in the local area. Older people who find the early 1970’s the classic “uninspired period” a blast from the past. Like taking a peek back in time, to when they were in their forties and still looking forward to another twenty odd years of work and they would still be useful. There are many people you could imagine popping into Café who actively seek such an environment that it has to offer. What on the other hand, is beyond all my own possible belief is that any of these type of “punters” would ever require sushi to eat.
Aspuddens Sushi, on the opposite side of the war zone, had once been Aspuddens Grill. It is by no means the most Asian inspired of restaurants when it comes to interior design. The tables and chairs are still the same as they were when it was the Grill, white metal chairs with meshed seats and a cushion. The tables are round with a single leg in the middle that splays out into pipes at the bottom, these pipes functioning as the feet of the table. The sign outside Aspuddens Sushi is the classic restaurant sign form the late 1970’s with a large Danish looking “fisherman come worker” holding onto a gigantic blackboard. It is on this blackboard that all the alternative offers are hand written, you used to be obliged to write in chalk, but they now have white pens, that gives a chalk like impression, but this text you have to wipe off with a wet rag. Which is better otherwise kids would jut wipe their sleeves over it for the fun it. The marquise hanging from the roof still has he words “Aspuddens Grill” written on the front flap if I’m not mistaken.
Aspuddens Sushi has nothing what so ever to do with the ambience of the place, it is the fact that Aspuddens Sushi exists entirely for the preparation, production and selling of Sushi. Laz and Lulle are the two men that brought Sushi to Aspudden. It is there mission and purpose in life, They grew up in Asia, Indonesia or the Philippians, or somewhere like that, and after getting a decent schooling in the “Art of Sushi”, they set off into the hinterlands of the frozen North, to find the spot from which they would start to spread the glorious simplistically divine concept of Sushi. The spot they found ended up being Aspuddens Sushi, just next to the Junk shop.
For those of you that unfamiliar with Aspudden I will paint a quick sketch of the place. Aspudden is in its’ own way very individual, it is a pleasant and rather pretty place. Many of the buildings on the high street are from the early part of the 1900’s. They have their own individuality built into them. They each have their own different topping and roofing design, giving an individual irregularity, which manages to blend easily together into an overall style. The Underground station “Aspudden” is two stops from the beginning of Central Stockholm, if you go by the old “customs gates” of Stockholm (seven stops into Central Station). Aspudden is joined to the main Southern Island of Stockholm by the drawbridge at Liljeholmen. There are three main areas that are considered to be part of the same general theme, Gröndal, Aspudden and Midsommarkransen. Fairly large green areas of both park and heath join these three areas; we even have a large pond, Trekanten, and the lake Mälaren is not more ten minutes walking distance.
During the 60’s these areas got quite run down and many people with serious social problems got moved into the apartments, making the area a nightmare to live in. A general overhaul in the Eighties changed that, they renovated the buildings and moved the junkies further south, deeper in gettoland. Finally the selling off of almost all the “council houses” to tenants, during the last five years has totally redefined these three areas into highly attractive and expensive (but still not “too” expensive areas). Now we have a lot of “thirty-somethings” with newborn children are moving into expensive flats, that they have taken large out mortgages on. There are still the people that moved here during the 80’s with older teenage kids, waiting for their kids to move out so they can sell their flats, make a bundle of money and move to the house they dreamed of, or of into country, or just stay put in Aspudden, sitting on a nice nest egg for the future.
What does not work well in Aspudden are new shops. We are too close to town so the general needs of the local population are really nothing more than the video/sweets/tobacco and DVD shop, a food shop for the basics, a few estate agents, a few hairdressers, a pizza place, a hamburger place, a curry place, a flower shop, a toy shop for small kids, a place you can get a decent cup of coffee and a Sushi bar, (there is a specialist shop for special video camera equipment). Everything else in the way of shops and services, that have tried to establish themselves in Aspudden, just fails after about six months, because nobody buys anything.
Aspudden used to a bit famous for the Tattoo artists “Doc Forest” and his (I think now ex-companion) Mia. But Doc Forest was one of the few tattoo artist in Stockholm in the 70’s, and probably the best known for years, before it became so mega trendy and now you have people and their pulsating pins on every street corner more or less.
Now three years ago when we first saw that the “dingy-diner” Aspuddens Grill was being converted into something new we held out little hope. Aspuddens Grill was one of the low points in the whole place. The only time you went there was on Sunday, around one o’clock, when the hangover was just letting go, and your body screamed for grease to oil all the dehydrated parts of you head. The fat used in the “production” of the meals was the only possible food to calm some the physical effects of last night enjoyments. But when it became clear that we were now to have our own Sushi house right here in Aspudden, we were delighted. What freedom of choice. We no longer had to go over the bridge (two stops or ten minutes in the car) to our favorite Sushi house in Hornstull, Genki. We could now take that stroll down the road pick up the Sushi and return to comfort of our home to enjoy the full delights of Sushi in our kitchen all together.
We went out and bought special square sea green plates with matching soya bowls to be able to serve the sushi, in the only way such delicacies should be treated, gracefully and with a sense of harmony. As it turned out we were far from the only ones delighted by the new developments in the culinary choice of Sushi. It was possible for the first week or two, to go in and order but after three weeks it was impetrative that all orders were phoned in, well in advance if you were to get your sushi. This is normally not a problem beyond a relatively simple planning. Due the cost, which is not extravagant, but more than an average everyday meal at home, Sushi was going to be eaten on a Friday or a Saturday evening. We would simple agree which evening and then agree who ordered for what time and who picked up. I normally arrived home first, ordered and then my wife would make a slight detour, to pick it up the order, on her way home from the Underground.
This was when we began to find out that in some cases you have to be very clear and concise. The two men from Aspuddens Sushi have two very separate jobs; neither does the others ones work. Laz is the Sushi man. He always leans forward, slightly bent over his cool disk, endlessly in slow motion, making piece after piece after piece of sushi. He seldom looks up form his work. He wears an Asian style cooks jacket and a frown. Lulle is the people man; he deals with the crowd, takes the orders, answers the telephone, receives the payment and does the chat. Lulle is the outgoing type with a bowl haircut and very round eyes. He gets the Miso soup into the plastic cups and puts the plastic lock on just before he ties off the unmarked white plastic bag and hands you your parcel of luxury.
It’s Lulle you speak to on the phone when you ordered. They have a set menu of pieces, you say ten pieces and you got like; three rolls, five salmon, one prawn and a tuna, the normal sushi kind of deal. The idea was you said the names (Small, Medium, Large and Luxury) for different combinations and they knew number of pieces, what you wanted and what you got. They had some with other names but you got a menu to take home with you, with the telephone number, and all the relevant information you needed to communicate with them. The name of the set menu, already described in detail, so there was no need to talk about it.
“Aspuddens Sushi” (Lulle when he answers the phone), you then said, “I want to order two large ones please”, to Lulle, he said “two large ones” back at you. “What time?” And you said “7 o’clock”; Lulle hummed a bit and said, “Ok seven o’clock”. If you had said six thirty he would have said seven o’clock, (unless you had phoned at five) you then put the phone down, Lulle wrote this down on his pad, mumbled something to Laz and the ball was rolling.
When it comes to sushi you can have different approaches. You can look at it as a selection of exotic seafood’s that are nice to mix in many ways. You can be as exciting as you like, you can go for the squid or any of the colorful creations that they can create. Some people feel that the set menu system is some carefully created Zen like mixture of quality and properties, so to change such ancient knowledge would be presumptuous. Some care only about the amount of food they get, it’s the numbers that are of interest, 15 bits sounds good. Our own particular approach to sushi, may be considered bland and dull by some, but is based on the simple fact that we both find two of the pieces of sushi to be the finest. Our selection is always Rolls and Salmon.
So when ordering sushi we were in the position of having to change the basic conversation with Lulle, which isn’t easily done. I have no idea how much Swedish Lulle has ever been exposed to in the way of language education. I would presume very little, if any what so ever. The few words that Lulle can put together into sentences, to enable him to survive living in this country are limited to the bare essentials.
Describing to him that we want only the Lax (Salmon) and the Rulla (Rolls), and nothing else, was not an easy task. We had to repeat ten pieces, just Lax and Rulla, two of them, ok. Just Lax and Rulla? Yes just Lax and Rulla. How many you want? Ten pieces, in each, just Lax and Rulla, Lax and Rulla? Yes. After making the same order every weekend for few months Lulle got to know who we were, so he would get it straight away. After that there was never any problem.
I think it was the first time we tried to order this simple menu that Lulle gave us the in depth detailed description of the rising price of tuna fish on the world market, and why we couldn’t get compensation for removing this particular piece of sushi from the set menu. We never wanted any compensation for the tuna replacement. I remember that being one of the only the conversions I have had, when none of the participants had more than a 3% idea of what was being said by the others at any one time.
And now this black cloud. Cafés act of open aggression. The taxi-yellow light sign with the word “SUSHI”. Ok I have seen many a disappointed sushi hunter turn up around seven o’clock on a Friday evening, believing that they could walk into Aspuddens Sushi and out again, with their order of sushi in the next ten minutes. You have to real about stuff like this. Lulle is as clear a crystal. “Have you ordered?” “No”. “It will take, hum over an hour, nine o’clock, you must order first”. “Oh”. They may spend the final seconds staring at the menu before their brains register the information, but they all leave quickly enough. The rest of us that have ordered, are waiting patiently for that “special nod and point” from Lulle when your order is up and ready to go.
How can anyone be so naïve to think you can stroll in here at seven without ordering, are you mad or newly moved in from Mars. Lulle does his point and nod, his arm is like arched into a bow shape movement that ends up with his finger pointing at you. You step up the counter and the deal is done. You pay and walk out with you order of Sushi to go.
Is it these people, these people who don’t order that are now to be catered for in Café. Are they to slip over the round-a-bout, cross the zone (or rather over the two zebra crossings to be on the safe side) and calmly be able to purchase some pre packed selection in a box that says one word on it?
The End
posted by rob at 6:45 AM
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