Sushi and a slice of capitalism in the raw

I'm a man of the world and I've eaten food all over the world. I've eaten pizza in Italy, curry in India and Chinese stuff in China.

But I've never been to Japan and, until recently, I'd never eaten sushi. Oh, I know the sushi craze is old-hat (hmm, old hat - now where did I eat that?) but I decided it was time I got myself up-to-speed on the raw fish delicacies.

To be honest, I don't think the prospect of eating raw fish had particularly tickled my taste buds in the past - but they have sushi rolls at my local 7-11 store in Beijing and I couldn't be bothered walking anywhere else for lunch so I gave them a whirl.

They looked good - and they came with two little sachets. One seemed to be soy sauce and the other was something called wasabi. It was a paste, an unnatural-looking shade of green and smelled of mustard.

So I tipped the sauce over my sushi rolls and smeared a dab of the green stuff on top of each. I took a bite and... GOOD GOD! that wasabi stuff was incredibly hot. I felt like my nose had turned into a blowtorch.

I enjoyed the sushi rolls but wasabi must definitely be an acquired taste. Intrigued by the substance that had set my sinuses ablaze, I decided to look it up on the internet. For your information, Eutremajaponicum (or Wasabia japonica) is a plant of the Brassicaceae family, which includes cabbages, horseradish, and mustard. It is also called Japanese horseradish.

Very interesting - but not half as interesting as the email I received a few hours later. It was from Amazon, inviting me to buy YO Sushi: The Japanese Cookbook by Kimiko Barber.

But wait a minute. How had Amazon got to know that I had been searching the internet for something connected with sushi?

I put this question to one of my younger colleagues, who said something along the lines of: "Get with it, daddy-o. It's an impersonal algorithm that digital marketing guys use. Your laptop works more for other people than it does for you."

Well pardon me for being a vintage model of the human species, but I find that incredibly creepy. A totally innocent search had allowed an unrelated website to access my personal email address and send me a message related to that search.

My family use Amazon and read my emails. What if I'd been searching for blowup dolls or how to get a quickie divorce? Would they have recommended books about those subjects?

I want the internet to be more like a helpful friend - not some spooky secret agent of capitalism.

Pass me some more of that wasabi. Now I really am breathing fire.

Contact the writer at david@chinadaily.com.cn