But to be fair, you really can get quality sushi all over this town. Hell, all over the world. But to be able to wander through a working market, where professionals break down chunks of tuna worth many hundreds of dollars while their breath clouds in the cold morning air . . . that's something different
Like I said, my favorite place in the city
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| Yes that's right, sushi-grade fish is first broken down using a handsaw. Because I think that hardware supplies don't get nearly enough use in the kitchen |
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| And for the serious stuff, the bandsaw--in order to stay out for longer, many boats will flash-freeze the fish as soon as they catch it (water's expansion when it freezes is due to the highly polar molecules lining up; if you freeze it quickly enough there's no expansion, meaning no freezer damage) |
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| Oh, should I have warned you guys at the beginning that there is a decent amount of blood and guts in this post. Hey guys, there's a decent amount of blood and guts in this post |
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| Blood, guts, knives, ice. This is where your sushi comes from. Blood and guts, knives and ice |
Sadly, all good things must come to an end. Word is that Tsukiji is going to be moving, going further out of the city to cut down on tourism and free up the valuable real estate on the Tokyo waterfront. Now, this could be a good thing--as you can see, I don't care about the touristy stuff. But I'm worried. I don't deal well with change
This has been a "pending" thing for a few years now, but it seems pretty set to move sometime in 2016. Rumor has it they may close the market to tourists altogether
And that would be unacceptable. So in the meantime, I have a lot of touring and sushi eating to do
Noah out
It's because the Olympics are coming that they have to mooooove.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, another good point. I do think the big thing, though, is simply that the city stands to make waaay too much money by letting them build luxury apartments on that land. Sooooo much money
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