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Published: March 31st 2009
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The Tokyo metro area by most measures clocks in at around 12 million people who's main protein source is fish (although this has been changing as McDonalds etc. has been colonizing the world). It makes for the biggest fish market in the world, called the Tsukiji Wholesale Market, a 40 minute train ride from my house. This is the market responsible with providing ALL of Tokyo either directly or indirectly with its fish. From the top restaurants who go directly, to major supermarket chains who take deliveries from a middleman, to the little neighborhood fishmonger, if you eat fresh fish in Tokyo, it comes from here. Everyday with very few exceptions fishing boats from the waters around Japan come in and unload everything you can imagine that lives in the ocean, starting around 3am in the morning, to the vendors set up in the main market area. This goes on relatively undisturbed until about 5:30am when the buyers come in. 5:30 is the beginning of the tuna auction, with each fish coming in whole, either fresh or flash frozen out at sea. This area was closed to tourists, but recently opened, except the trains don't run that early from my station.
I was only able to get in around 6:30am, which was plenty early. Perhaps i'll pull an all nighter to go see tuna.
As you walk into the market area you first notice the orderly chaos in the entry way. Perhaps a 200 yard long, 3 deck parking lot spreads out in front of you with delivery trucks and little carts flying in and out carrying the payloads that were purchased in the inner market. Flanking this on one side are 6 little narrow streets called the "outer market." This is where the magically fresh sushi and fish donburi is served up for breakfast to the early-bird Japanese and tourists who brave the sleepiness and cold (This was March 24) to grab fish on top of rice that was alive maybe an hour ago. There are also shops for kitchen supplies and sushi equipment, as well as japanese omelet sellers, another staple of Tsukiji. Streets are narrow, made narrower by the throngs of people lined up to get into the most popular places, Daiwa Sushi, or Sushi Dai for the famous sushi, or Oedo for a more economical but just as fresh fish donburi.
Pressing forward, you pass
through the loading area into the heart of the market, where countless vendors are spread out so far that I can't give an estimate how big it is. Most are in the middle of transactions with whoever needs seafood, which happens to be everyone, directly or indirectly. Walking through the rows and rows of beautiful fish and shellfish, seeing both known and unknown varieties, one thing that you can't mistake is that just about everything but the auctioned tuna is still living, or at the very least moving. Shrimp, crabs, lobsters, prawns are kept in tubs of constantly circulating water. Whole fish, if not in water, are heavily iced. All the mollusks were in tanks, from 80 dollar abalone to the biggest mussels I have seen in my life. Even the little individual squid come in squid-sized bags filled with water.
Then there is the unmistakable yellowfin tuna. Known as Maguro in Japanese but also classified as Toro depending on fat content of the flesh. Every vendor had at least a hunk of this beautiful fish just bought at the auction, some stalls had more than one fish in different stages of deconstruction. Deconstruction involved about 3 men working
bandsaws and knives 3 to 6 feet long cutting the fish into loins, bellies, steaks, ranging from cotton candy pink to beef tenderloin red. Some of the highest quality pieces were going for around 3500 yen a kilogram, around 18 dollars a pound, wholesale.
So then its was time for breakfast, and unfortunately, no pictures could be taken in the restaurants. Unfortunately, made a bit of a miscalculation and hopped in the donburi line because by 8am the lines were so deep for the three most popular places that I couldn't tell them apart. But I can tell you that the 2000 yen donburi at Oedo had 3 huge slices of maguro, a mound of uni, 2 delicately cooked sweet shrimp, the best squid I have eaten with a texture so soft it was like salmon, and 2 whole scallops. It's obvious I couldn't make a selection of what I wanted on top my my rice so I got it all. Next stop, and there will be a next stop, is either Sushi Dai or Daiwa sushi. Price for their best plate is in the same ballpark as Yasuda in NYC. I think that will be a fair match
because so far, no one in Tokyo has beaten Chef Yasuda for sushi.
As a wise crab once sung:
Under the sea
Under the sea
Nobody beat us
Fry us and eat us
In fricassee
We what the land folks loves to cook
Under the sea we off the hook
In other news, found a sweet
british pub in Shibuya with 19 beers and 10 bottles, mostly dark. A bit pricey, but they have free shows time to time, best fish and chips in Tokyo (perhaps from Tsukiji?), and an unbeatable atmosphere.
Classes start on the 6th. Let's see what I can do until then.
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mom
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under the sea!
Wow, another indescribable adventure! Cant wait to see this on the "tourist" route! The writing and description was beyond belief. Felt like I was there.