I am a big fan of sushi. I’m aware that eating raw food can be risky, which is a major reason why many choose not to eat this type of food. I’ll admit that I was one of those people until some friends took me to a sushi restaurant and had me try a California roll. From that moment on I became a daring sushi eater and have tried almost every type of sushi, with the exception of blowfish and a few others—I’m not that daring, yet.

The key to anyone’s sushi experience depends on the quality of the sushi. This concern was heavily focused on during an international restaurant summit in Tokyo, Japan. The rise in popularity of sushi means that it is being offered anywhere and everywhere, leading to fake sushi bars, over-confident amateurs, and poisoned consumers. Worried summit attendees discussed the importance of chefs offering correctly prepared sushi.  In order to combat this problem, Japanese bureaucrats even considered the idea of creating “a global ‘sushi police’ that would assess Japanese restaurants overseas,” but ultimately they decided to focus on providing education and advice on how to properly handle raw fish.

For sushi fans concerned about this problem, do some research about local restaurants and ask questions about the quality of the sushi to determine which restaurants should be avoided. Of course, it you wish to eat the best sushi then save your money and travel to Japan. If you ever get the chance, and visit Osaka—located on the main island of Japan, HonshÅ«—I recommend the restaurant, Kaisen Misakikou. Although I visited Japan about 6 years ago, I still remember how amazing the sushi looked and tasted compared to any sushi I’d had or have ever had since then in the US.