The Tsukiji Market is in Tokyo but deserves a section all on its own. We got up early one morning to visit what is the worlds largest wholesale fish and seafood market, selling more than 2,000 tonnes of seafood per day. Its one of the sights not to miss when in Tokyo and, as an avid lover of all markets but especially food markets, it was something I was really looking forward to (temples and shrines are OK but don't hold my interest for more than 1/2 a day I’m afraid). It definitely pays to get there really early though (before 0530).
The market is a huge operation and goods for the market start rolling in at 5pm the night before by plane, ship and truck and at 3am the next morning are laid out for auction that begins at 0530. We arrived at 5.45am and the place was manic with wholesalers buying fish before taking it back to their stalls (which are adjacent to the auction halls) to prepare it for sale to the restauranteurs etc.
There were men with hand carts, little truck/cart type things that whizzed around and there was a real danger of being hit by a vehicle moving at speed and you really had to have your wits about you. Thankfully we were early enough to watch the tuna auction. We’d never seen whole tuna before and they are such impressive and powerful looking fish, almost like a torpedo. Tuna are solid muscle and are said to be ultimate killing machines due to their speed and agility in the water. They’re completely streamlined and have dents in their body into which their fins fold so they can whiz through the water at speeds of up to 70kph. I’d read this previously but not seen it but once up close I could see and feel how the fin folded back so the side is completely smooth (I was waiting to get yelled at – it was a big fish and I’m sure I wasn’t meant to be touching it and seeing how its fins folded down). The dents in their sides are so subtle and difficult to see unless you’re up really close. It was actually quite sad to see them end up in this state. You wouldn't realise the size of the fish if it weren't for Euans feet in the top of the photo (I should have asked him if he could lie down next to it... :-)
The tuna sell for between 600,000-1,000,000 yen each (equivalent to £3,200-£5,300) and can be 300kg and well over 6ft in length. I have since read that a sushi grade blue fin tuna weighing 201kg sold at the Tokyo market in 2001 for US$173,600!
As an aside, if you’re a foodie and like reading, I highly recommend a book I read in Africa - “It Must Have Been Something I Ate” by Jeffrey Steingarten where the chapters are dedicated to a particular food-related topic. One of the early chapters in the book talks about this fish market and focuses on the subject of toro, the desired underbelly of the tuna that is graded according to quality. It’s a great read.
Anyhow, back to the fish. The fresh and frozen tuna are auctioned separately and the below aren't wrapped up, they're just covered with a thin layer of frost
The fish are inspected by potential buys using hooks and torches before bidding. The tuna all have their tails removed (and stuffed in their mouths) and some have a chunk of flesh cut down by the tail to show the quality of the meat
To us, the auctions are quick, confusing and incomprehensible
and once auctioned, the fish are cleaned up before shipping
or are taken by cart into the adjacent market to be sliced up
The market is a huge operation and goods for the market start rolling in at 5pm the night before by plane, ship and truck and at 3am the next morning are laid out for auction that begins at 0530. We arrived at 5.45am and the place was manic with wholesalers buying fish before taking it back to their stalls (which are adjacent to the auction halls) to prepare it for sale to the restauranteurs etc.
There were men with hand carts, little truck/cart type things that whizzed around and there was a real danger of being hit by a vehicle moving at speed and you really had to have your wits about you. Thankfully we were early enough to watch the tuna auction. We’d never seen whole tuna before and they are such impressive and powerful looking fish, almost like a torpedo. Tuna are solid muscle and are said to be ultimate killing machines due to their speed and agility in the water. They’re completely streamlined and have dents in their body into which their fins fold so they can whiz through the water at speeds of up to 70kph. I’d read this previously but not seen it but once up close I could see and feel how the fin folded back so the side is completely smooth (I was waiting to get yelled at – it was a big fish and I’m sure I wasn’t meant to be touching it and seeing how its fins folded down). The dents in their sides are so subtle and difficult to see unless you’re up really close. It was actually quite sad to see them end up in this state. You wouldn't realise the size of the fish if it weren't for Euans feet in the top of the photo (I should have asked him if he could lie down next to it... :-)
The tuna sell for between 600,000-1,000,000 yen each (equivalent to £3,200-£5,300) and can be 300kg and well over 6ft in length. I have since read that a sushi grade blue fin tuna weighing 201kg sold at the Tokyo market in 2001 for US$173,600!
As an aside, if you’re a foodie and like reading, I highly recommend a book I read in Africa - “It Must Have Been Something I Ate” by Jeffrey Steingarten where the chapters are dedicated to a particular food-related topic. One of the early chapters in the book talks about this fish market and focuses on the subject of toro, the desired underbelly of the tuna that is graded according to quality. It’s a great read.
Anyhow, back to the fish. The fresh and frozen tuna are auctioned separately and the below aren't wrapped up, they're just covered with a thin layer of frost
The fish are inspected by potential buys using hooks and torches before bidding. The tuna all have their tails removed (and stuffed in their mouths) and some have a chunk of flesh cut down by the tail to show the quality of the meat
To us, the auctions are quick, confusing and incomprehensible
and once auctioned, the fish are cleaned up before shipping
or are taken by cart into the adjacent market to be sliced up
This is one of the little motorised trolleys that were actually quite cool. The round ring above the red barrel (which housed the motor) is the steering wheel, accelerator and brake. To accelerate, they pushed down and to brake I think there was a smaller ring inside that they pressed.
Fish are shipped off all over the world, I think this one was going to the US in a fish coffin.
This one must have been heavy as 8 men struggled to lift it and they give an indication of the size of the fish
There are 450 types of seafood that sell here and the below is a blue marlin. There were sword fish but we didn’t see any whole, only cut up into chunks
The fresh tuna is handled so carefully and filleted with long knives over a meter in length, called (one of three names) hancho hocho. It took three men to carefully fillet one fish
and after they were done, particular care was taken to transfer the heavy fillet onto a slab of wood where it was carefully wiped down
We were wondering how much wastage there was and we saw very little, with this chap scraping off the meat between the bones of the fish with a spoon.
Once the fish was bought for sale in the wholesale market it was all prepared by hand, with chaps shelling shellfish, killing, gutting and tailing fish etc. Some stalls had tanks of (some barely) live fish that they were taking out as required. The fish in the below were actually alive even if they don't look it.
We watched this chap for a while and saw he could split, gut, de-bone and fillet one small eel in less than 20 secs. It was quite funny as when we started watching he had a smoke casually hanging out of his mouth and the ash got longer, and longer and longer. I thought it was going to drop in the fish but a short sharp snap from his boss saw the smoke disappear in a flash. The sight of a camera obviously brought that on but it was exactly the smoke hanging out of his mouth that I was trying to capture!
Some of the fish I could identify (I’ve not seen leatherjackets since I was a kid!) but others, such as these orange and silver fish below, were really beautiful. If anyone reading this can identify the silver fish, please let us know what they are!
Around the gutting, manic driving, killing, buying and slicing was ice making. Huge industrial-size ice cube-makers were filled and ice was pumped out to order, filling polystyrene box after polystyrene box.
The place is really an environmentalists nightmare – fish that are in danger of being over-fished being auctioned in the 100s every day and shipped in wooden boxes and polystyrene boxes piled in heaps two stories high. I’m sure some of the little motorised cart-things that whizzed around were gas-powered but then we saw them being filled at an unusual petrol station so perhaps not!
Once you're done with the fish market, there are plenty of bars and restaurants serving sushi and sashimi plus many other dishes. You can almost guarantee you won't get any fresher sashimi than here unless you're on a boat with the fish being dragged in!
Fish are shipped off all over the world, I think this one was going to the US in a fish coffin.
This one must have been heavy as 8 men struggled to lift it and they give an indication of the size of the fish
There are 450 types of seafood that sell here and the below is a blue marlin. There were sword fish but we didn’t see any whole, only cut up into chunks
The fresh tuna is handled so carefully and filleted with long knives over a meter in length, called (one of three names) hancho hocho. It took three men to carefully fillet one fish
and after they were done, particular care was taken to transfer the heavy fillet onto a slab of wood where it was carefully wiped down
We were wondering how much wastage there was and we saw very little, with this chap scraping off the meat between the bones of the fish with a spoon.
Once the fish was bought for sale in the wholesale market it was all prepared by hand, with chaps shelling shellfish, killing, gutting and tailing fish etc. Some stalls had tanks of (some barely) live fish that they were taking out as required. The fish in the below were actually alive even if they don't look it.
We watched this chap for a while and saw he could split, gut, de-bone and fillet one small eel in less than 20 secs. It was quite funny as when we started watching he had a smoke casually hanging out of his mouth and the ash got longer, and longer and longer. I thought it was going to drop in the fish but a short sharp snap from his boss saw the smoke disappear in a flash. The sight of a camera obviously brought that on but it was exactly the smoke hanging out of his mouth that I was trying to capture!
Some of the fish I could identify (I’ve not seen leatherjackets since I was a kid!) but others, such as these orange and silver fish below, were really beautiful. If anyone reading this can identify the silver fish, please let us know what they are!
Around the gutting, manic driving, killing, buying and slicing was ice making. Huge industrial-size ice cube-makers were filled and ice was pumped out to order, filling polystyrene box after polystyrene box.
The place is really an environmentalists nightmare – fish that are in danger of being over-fished being auctioned in the 100s every day and shipped in wooden boxes and polystyrene boxes piled in heaps two stories high. I’m sure some of the little motorised cart-things that whizzed around were gas-powered but then we saw them being filled at an unusual petrol station so perhaps not!
Once you're done with the fish market, there are plenty of bars and restaurants serving sushi and sashimi plus many other dishes. You can almost guarantee you won't get any fresher sashimi than here unless you're on a boat with the fish being dragged in!
1 comment:
Gosh I never realised Tuna was THAT big, 300Kg and 6feet, that is HUUUUUGE.
I also love Food markets but have a particular dislike of fish ones, it's the smell, I just really can't handle that fishy smell.
But hey, good on you for those pics, at least, now I know where my tuna comes from :)
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