Art on a plate as the palate" and nowhere is this clearer than in Japanese cooking, the acknowledged inspiration for nouvelle cuisine, where the cliche of "works of art on a plate" holds true.
This aesthetic, coupled with the Japanese ability to raise the mundane to an art form (witness the tea ceremony) can be seen in sushi, where basic ingredients are transformed into something to be savoured by both eye and palate.
At its most basic, sushi is seasoned rice and fish, usually raw, and wasabi paste (a form of mustard root) formed into small, bite-sized pieces. Vegetables are sometimes used instead of fish and seaweed (nori) is often used to form rolls, which are then sliced into small sections.
Sushi first took hold in California in the early 1980s and then spread throughout the US, becoming a trendy fast food. London has had a sushi bar scene for some years now, and restaurants such as Yoi Sushi and Moshi Moshi Sushi feature conveyor belts carrying colour-coded plates from which the customer chooses.
Sushi has been available for some years in restaurants such as Ayumi-Ya and Yamamori but with the opening of O Sushi in Dublin's Temple Bar, you can now experience a real sushi bar - albeit without the thrill of plates in perpetual motion.
The restaurant is in the former location of Il Pasticcio and the premise's narrow space works to its advantage with a long, cherry wood counter dominating the right-hand-side of the ground floor, behind which the chefs prepare your order. To the left are high, metal stools at marble topped, two-seater tables and upstairs there is seating for larger groups. Which is where myself and six others dined recently.
Our party included a couple of people who were more than a little wary of eating what Lennon once termed "dead fish", but happily their fears were unfounded. For those determined not to try sushi, there are alternatives such as tempura and teriyaki which can be delicious - but you're missing out if you confine yourself to these dishes alone.
The food at O Sushi lends itself very well to group dining with small dishes of five or six pieces, so we ordered a wide range of dishes and shared.
First up were the gyoza, Japanese dumplings with fillings of prawn, pork and vegetables, which came with a chilli sauce and a soy-based dipping sauce. One member of the group who had been bemoaning his lack of skill with chopsticks suddenly became quite proficient when these appeared.
The dumplings were quickly followed by skewers of prawns, chicken and tofu with vegetables, all grilled and basted with a sweet teriyaki sauce.
The chicken was a particular hit, with the meat beautifully tender and slightly smoky paired with charred baby leeks. For our main course it was nature in the raw; two sushi platters for two, a sashimi platter and two nori rolls. The sashimi platter was served with daikon (Japanese radish) and wasabi and included tuna, salmon, swordfish and squid cut into juliennes.
The fish was amazingly tender and distinctly unfishy - as fresh fish is. The sushi platters featured the same selection of fish plus plaice and tamago (Japanese omelette) and were served with wasabi and pickled ginger, to refresh the palate between mouthfuls.
The highlights were the tuna and the salmon, both of which were meltingly soft and almost buttery in texture. The one disappointment was the squid, which had been scored several times but was still impossible to tackle - very tough.
The nori rolls came in four small pieces, delicately flavoured with the paper-like seaweed providing a perfect contrast to the slightly glutinous rice. The rice in the sushi made it deceptively filling but we still had the seasonal fish and prawns tempura and chicken teriyaki to attend to - all in the interest of research, of course.
The teriyaki was nicely tender and came with a dipping sauce of soy, garlic and ginger as well as rice. Rice also accompanied the tempura, which was disappointingly soggy where it should have been light and crisp - the one serious low point in a meal with many highs.
We sipped on two flasks of sake during the meal and rounded it off with green tea, a perfect way to end. Service throughout was relaxed but attentive and the bill proved to be a hugely pleasant surprise - £118.50 including service charge. As an affordable and fun way of spending a Saturday night, it's hard to beat.
Niall Carey, already a partner in Yamamori in South Great George's Street, is the force behind O Sushi. He visited Japan for the first time in the 1970s and has had a keen interest in Japanese food since then.
He is confident the time is right to bring the sushi bar to Ireland. "Two years ago I stuck my neck out with noodles and Yamamori and people have really taken to it. It is a learning curve but the Irish have been travelling so much - computer people and business people. Sushi is high energy, power food. It really is the food of the 1990s." In these health-conscious times, it is also an attractive option, low in calories and cholesterol and high in vitamins and trace minerals.
Clearly, freshness is of paramount importance and a steady supply of freshly-caught fish is central to any sushi restaurant. The salmon in O Sushi comes from a fish farm in Waterford but much of the catch is flown in from Billingsgate market in London. The order is placed at 5 a.m and the fish is in Dublin by noon to be prepared by head chef Niamh MacMahon, who trained under a Japanese sushi chef. A typical day's haul includes tuna, swordfish and red snapper and any number of other treats, depending on what is available: "We sometimes get salmon eggs but they're very expensive, £28 a pound. I will buy sea urchin in the summer when they're more plentiful and we also get octopus which we cook. It's very tasty when it's done properly and when we've done it here people have liked it."
Meanwhile, plans are in hand to broaden the menu and to offer a "bento" lunchbox service. Octopus plus, anyone?
O Sushi, 12 Fownes Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2: open Monday-Sunday noon-2.30 p.m., 5 p.m.-11p.m., phone 01-6776111