Sorry about the absence of posts lately been concentrating on staying employed...no small feat these days. I realized I'm not quite done with Japan yet because I failed to talk about a place so special that I've dragged my shochu-addled, hungover body out of bed in the middle of the night to check out, twice. A place so full of blood, knife wielding lunatics, and frenzied activity that sensory overload is unavoidable.I first visited the Tokyo's Tsukiji Market with a Japanese friend and her American husband who live in the city. I'm not sure they actually believed my enthusiasm for seeing this legendary fish market which dates back to the 16th century and the beginning of the Edo period. OK, I'll admit it I saw the place on Bourdain's first show on the Food Network but that doesn't make it any less interesting.
Arriving just before before 5:30 a.m. to the tuna auction was a highlight. Beautiful, glistening and at times gigantic yellowfin, bluefin, and big eye tuna were being sampled and bought and sold by serious men representing fishing vessels, seafood companies, restaurants, processors, exporters, and other middlemen. They've actually cracked down a bit on tourism at the auction as morons (like yours truly) with gaping expressions jostling for a great camera shot get in the way of these guys doing their jobs.
The market itself is divided up into various sections of fish stalls and there's literally an uni section, unagi section, tuna section, etc. The middlemen here can be seen slicing and sorting and preparing their specialties for sale. I didn't see many individual buyers sort of picking up the evenings supplies but rather larger buyers likely representing restaurants, shops, etc...On the periphery of the market merchants sell everything from cookery to cutlery to bonito flakes. On one visit I bought a beautiful hand-forged, high carbon stainless steel chef's knife which I use pretty much every day.
Perhaps the highlight of that first visit though was breakfast which involved eating some of the freshest sushi imaginable...all before 6:30 a.m. I remember this one tuna preparation which I've still not been able to find elsewhere called aburi chutoro. The tuna is actually lightly seared with a blow torch then lightly seasoned with salt and pepper and drizzled with a light soy with citrus or light ponzu sauce. I ate about ten pieces of this dish easily making it the best breakfast sushi ever. It's a haul to get there and you've gotta get up pretty early but Tsukiji is worth it.
