Put Some Soy on It

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Alarm wake up. 5.30am. If there was something good about this situation, it would be that its only a 5 minute walk to tsukiji market.
The sun was still sleeping, but i managed to get out of bed and drag myself onto the empty streets.
The walk was actually quite nice. Not too cold either, considering... and very peaceful.
As I turned the bend to walk into the market area, I noticed there were a lot of drum dollys. By this, i mean there were people standing on a platform, next to what looked like a big drum filled with gasoline, and behind them was a long board with boxes on it. So, these are used for transporting things across the market.
Going from the silent walk near the park to the market entrance was an obvious transition. The market appeared not to smell fishy, and indeed as i glanced at the open boxes on the drum dollys, it was veggies. Hmm, wrong place?
I kept walking through the palacial expo of veggies, and eventually discovered the fishes! I was surprised though, because i was expecting what i think is supposed to be the largest fish market in the world, to smell like one of 3 proverbial things people would think of in such a situation. But no! the smell was not so strong. Why? Well, because much of the fish was still breathing. Not only breathing, but flapping and gasping for a last gulp of seawater before SWACK, CHOP, bye bye fishie. Such a sight was a little overwhelming, but to say i didnt know that fish had to be whacked before i ate them would be naive. Some of the biggest guys ive seen though. And as I walked around the market, i noticed some especially large tuna. I also noticed that the tuna was being transported through the market by the drum dollys, or by wheelbarrel. And so i followed the long procession to the back of the market, where the fish were being auctioned off.
Another awkward place to be. It was easily the largest lineup of fish I have ever seen (easily 400). And each fish was well close to 100lbs or so (my guess is based on one of them being dragged past me and whopping my leg. It felt pretty heavy, but granted it was also frozen!). The auctioneer sang good morning to the crowd of goofy buyers, with press hats that read their names for easy recognition i guess, and jumped into an entertaining mantra for each fish.
As the fish were bought, another guy came by with two metal hooks. He stabbed the massive beast and dragged it off. Being that the fish were so large, it felt eerily similar to what it might be like if whole cows, or people, were caught, frozen, and lined up. Is that morbid enough?
But still very cool, in a way.
After watching the auciton, i walked around the individual market shops and started getting an appetite. Chu toro, for 800yen. I couldnt resist. Im not sure why, but i felt like asking the guy selling me the chu toro if i needed to do anything special to prepare the fish. I dont know what i was expecting, simmer gently in water, or heat it in the microwave... but he said, "put some soy sauce on it." I couldnt have said it better myself.
Well, time to go have some chu toro for breakfast.

LOVE!

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Comments

[Uncle Rand]

Travel on!
So great to get these blogs!! Love you R

[mom and dad]

wasabi
Well, was the tuna as good as it sounded. Did they have those giant tuna as well ? Your blog presses mom and I to return. The Skyline pic looked good on you..Where would they allow you to test drive the beast....likely 20' foreward and back, more than that and you're liable to change time zones. Please confirm the translation of chu. Looking foreward to the next chapter.. pappy/n'mappy

[Eriku]

Chu Defined
Hey Papa, I'm glad you're shooting me some Q's--just to keep me one my toes I like it! Chu means "Center," in regards to Chu Toro. This means the center of the tuna...or the fatty part! MMMMMM. Later that day, Max's girlfriend seared the remaining Chu Toro. From what I heard, it was even better than Nama (fresh\uncooked). LOVE