Tsukiji dreams

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.

Lost Sailor

Throughout my life I've been lucky to have friends with boats or friends whose parents had boats. I wouldn't describe myself as a water person or even sailing enthusiast but being on a boat away from shore feels good and the sea air smells like freedom. My early childhood experience with boats involve the pristine, brown-grey waters of Lake Erie and shitty AMF Sunfishes which we used to attempt to flip over for laughs.

Later as a high schooler my friend Tommy would take us out on his dad's Pearson and we'd drink thousands of Molson Goldens and smoke hundreds of Marlboro's thinking we had life figured out. We also used to eat pretty nice food back in those days. OK we were in Buffalo so things were pretty limited but it was early origin of gluttony for me.

Years later I began the good fortune of sailing with my friend Antonio. The first trip was almost exactly ten years ago. I had job turmoil, was searching for direction (or beer one of the two) and I'd been dying to spend time sailing in Mexico. The premise was simple: join a famous race sailing from Zijuatenejo to Acapulco. We really weren't racing or on a racing boat so felt pretty good about the 100+ mile endeavor.

What I really felt good about were the provisions: 4 cases of Modelo beer, 2 bottles vodka (I hate vodka), 4 bottles Herradura silver tequila, 2 bottles random whisky, 3 bottles dark rum, 2 bottles miscellaneous gin, various mixers, bag of limes, 1 liter bottled water, a few cans of olives, some fresh tortillas, and a bag of avocados. Perhaps the scary thing was that all the alcoholic provisions were just for two of us and the crew of two who did most of the actual sailing. Perhaps the scarier thing was that by day three only the vodka was left. OK even more horrifying was the fact that the crew only drank water. Sort of astounding that I can even remember this trip ten years later.

One especially vivid memory I have was our tuna sushi feast. We did a fair bit of fishing off the back of the Refuge. When I say fishing I mean heavy gauge test nailed to piece of 2X4 with some live bait, likely sardines on the end of a pretty big hook attached to the stern ladder. Every once in a while we'd put on gloves and "reel" in the line. This crude technique was incredibly effective in pulling in beautiful smaller sized Yellowfin and Skipjack tuna. Pulling in a couple of each we (and by we I mean not me) cleaned and gutted the tuna, cut the fillets and loins and put the fish on ice. A few hours we feasted on some of the most amazing sashimi I've ever had. The Skipjack is a bit darker, stronger in flavor and was cooked on the mini grill with olive oil, salt and soy sauce. Gluttony at sea...need a reprise.