MELTING POT : Sushi on Wheels

In Japan, the fish vendor is a familiar sight, presiding over a stall at a marketplace or delivering his wares door to door. In Southern California, however, the closest most of us get to fish is pointing at a hunk of orange roughy through the glass at the local supermarket. But the area’s growing Asian population can still find touchstones in entrepreneurs like Ray Goto.

For 30 years, Goto, a second-generation Japanese American, has driven his truck from neighborhood to neighborhood in the San Gabriel Valley, Cerritos and Venice selling what many customers say is the freshest fish they’ve found, including tuna, salmon, yellowtail, halibut, Spanish mackerel, squid and octopus. He also offers vegetables and Japanese staples including tofu, rice, soy sauce, fish cake and noodles.

But Goto offers more than just food; his visits create a sort of mobile market day. When his truck arrives in a neighborhood, Japanese moms, with babies and young children in tow, rush out to shop and talk to their neighbors. Children beg their moms to buy them treats, gum shaped like a whistle, maybe, or Pockys--long, skinny cookies dipped in chocolate.

Kay and Paul Hashimoto, second- and third-generation Japanese Americans, enjoy Goto’s pleasant personality and the convenience. But they say that what has kept them coming back every week for the past three decades is the freshness of Goto’s fish.

“My fish has to be fresh,” says Goto, who rises near dawn every day to stock up at the San Pedro docks. “Most of my customers eat it raw.”