Buffets And Tariffs

 President Trump's tariffs affect not only home chefs but all chef;s. Restaurants will be greatly impacted which means higher prices for diners. The worst hit is the affordable all you can eat buffets, in casino towns in Reno, Nevada.Those easy on the wallet lunches and dinners may be a thing of the past.

Regular contributor and chef Priya Krishna wrote about this in Wednesday's New YorkTimes Food section. Prices will go up around the county but in casino towns it will be devastating.Reno has fifty all you can eat sushi buffets. A la carte sushi is becoming a thing of the past and those restaurants offering that are quickly going out of business according to Michael Higdon a local food writer and photographer, He also states there is a lot of pride in having many all you can eat places.There is cost in creating Reno sushi bars. The fish doesn't have the pristine simplicity of pure Japanese sushi. These are more baroque creations made mainly by Latino chefs who infuse their culinary traditions in them. The high cost of seafood and local restauarants' need to offer bounty and variety has created a flamboyant new cuisine. The fish is no longer the star but a supporting character.The menus have punchy names foillowed by a plethora of ingredients. There is the Playboy  -a wild mix of cream cheese with tempura shrimp, onion red snapper .avocado and jalapeno. There is the Mickey , so named because it;s supposed to resemble the Disney mascot. This is a mix of seared tuna, avocado, unagi and sriracha sauce.

Many restaurant owners - who are not Japanese  - adopt the all you can eat menu because it is cost efficient. Jongsoo Park who opened Kuma Sushi a couple of years ago said she wanted to serve premium species such as sea urchins and spot prawns. Yet their high price would have made her open up an ala carte eatery. That was unaffordable. An all you can eat restaurant was a better choice. It provided a quick cash return which made the restaurant immediately profitable.The prpblem with an all you can eat buffets is that it does take a high volume to make a lot of money. with fifty similar restaurants scattered throughout the town that can be come impossible according to Khai Duc Du, owner of Hinoki Sushi. Trump's tariffs on CHina has hit a whopping 145 percent, affecting such sushi essentials as eel and seaweed. It may affect the purveyor of all the fish served in  Reno, Miyuki Wong. She works for the local distributor Sierra Meat and Seafood and sells $200,000 a week of just seafood alone. Eel along has jumped from $8.40 a pound to $11.90 and then after the tariffs $13.95. The alternative is to serve non seafood extras like edamame and dumplings like Reno;s oldest sushi bars Reno Pier owned by Heejin Polon.

Will Reno's sushi bars be a thing of the past with all these new tariffs being slapped on the seafood? Possibly but maybe not. Restaurant owners will find a way of keeping customers , maybe with vegan sushi. The fish iis too expensive.