Appetite for Degustation: The Master’s Technique that Japan Boasts to the World

As the person who deliberately arranged for his hotel in Tokyo to be near the Tsukiji fish market in order more easily catch its famous early morning tuna auctions, it's not surprising that I would jump at the opportunity observe the cutting of a whole tuna into blocks for sashimi at the Mitsuwa Marketplace...even if it's in New Jersey.

Every year, Mitsuwa presents a tuna cutting demonstration where they cut the largest the bluefin tuna: the giant bluefin tuna (also known as the northern bluefin tuna, or in Japanese 鲔，and more specifically, hon-maguro). I first heard about it when my coworker gave me a Mitsuwa weekly ad which advertised the event. To get a better idea of what I could expect to see, I googled it and came across Greg Takayama's fantastic page about when he and some friends went. It's a popular event. On Sunday afternoon, at the third demonstration of the weekend, there were easily more than 150 people there to watch and many more were there to buy the sashimi and the nigiri sushi that was prepared from the fish.

The demonstration area was a fenced enclosure whose the perimeter was surrounded by people trying to get a good view of the 680 pound fish that was lying on the table. I arrived about 1/2 hour early and was the second or third person back from the front. There was a presenter, one or two people who actually cut the fish, and a few other people who assisted with the packaging and selling of the fish.

A few minutes before the scheduled start time, a commercial fisherman who somehow became friends with the sushi chefs who were also fish cutters, gave an introduction to what we were about to see and was also friendly enough to answer any questions we might have. I learned a couple of things:

At 680 lbs., the fish is one of the largest fish they've ever had.
The fish was probably about 800+ lbs. before it was "dressed," i.e., gutted and the tail and head removed)
The fish had been caught about 4 or 5 days earlier
The fish is not killed until they are ready to drain its blood
The temperature of the fish as it was being cut was about 35-40 degrees
Tuna is worth roughly 10 times more at the beginning of their migration than at the end of it. Since they do not feed while migrating, they lose their fat.
O-toro (the fattiest cut) makes up about 5% of the flesh
Chu-toro (medium fatty cut) makes up about 10-25% of the flesh
The quality of the fish can be determined from examining a cross section of where the tail meets the torso or cross sections at other parts of the torso
The meat around the ribs, labeled kiriotoshi at the store (but called nakaochi), tastes very good and is relatively inexpensive (~$20/lb)
The quality of fish offered for sale was said to be comparable to what you would find at high-end sushi restaurants such as Nobu and Yasuda.

Fascinating stuff. Unfortunately, one very important fact that was not mentioned was that giant bluefin tuna are critically endangered. Although a female can lay 40 million eggs, the population for this fish is declining for the sake of a $7.2 billion industry. Scientists say that the sustainable limit for global fishing for the survival of this species is 7,500 tons. Yet, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, an intergovernmental organization that seeks to manage and conserve tuna species set a limit of 22,500 tons. Sounds like industry lobby got its way.

A large part of this problem is due to the popularity of tuna. It seems like every lunch place in New York sells tuna rolls or tuna nigiri. What a waste. At these places, the fish isn't even worth eating. Yet, everybody does. Conservation groups suggest avoiding this type of fish altogether, but I wonder if we can save the species simply by not having less than mediocre sushi.

As I watched the cutting demonstration, I thought about how gruesome it was. Unless we're tending vegetables in our garden or watching a PETA video, many of us probably do not give much thought to what our food was before it was food. Most of us probably wouldn't go see a cow being slaughtered or watch the butcher in action. Maybe it has something to do with the lack of blood in the fish. Or maybe fish occupies a different position from cows in our hierarchy of sentient animals. After all, there are pescatarians.

Despite the guilt, it was very exciting. Definitely educational and worthwhile. For those you interested, the Monterey Bay Aquarium offers this guide for the sustainable eating of sushi.

On that note, on to the pictures:

First, a picture from the Tsukiji Market in Tokyo, Japan, to give some context as to where bluefin tuna starts its commercial life.

Workers at Tsukiji.

Waiting to spring into action packaging and selling the fish.

Beautiful pattern on the fish's skin. The fish is able to control each of those small fins individually.

The collar bone was the first to be removed.

This knife was virtually a sword.

One of the butcher's tools.

Sawing.

Opening.

This one might as well be called a sword too.

Scraping the meat from the ribs for kiriotoshi. I noticed that the people cutting the fish were saving much of it for themselves

Bored of the chunk of flesh in front of them

You call that a knife?

Removing the spine.

Bloody gloves at the scene.

Each block was about 1/4 lbs. That's about $300 worth of fish on the tray.

Each 1/4 lb of fish could probably produce about 15 pieces of sashimi, which would make a piece of o-toro nigiri just over $1. You'd probably pay over $5 for quality fish at a restaurant. Prior to 1970, the commercial value of this type of fish was 5 cents a pound.

People clamored for the fish. At these prices, it's not surprising. I noticed that specific, presumably better, cuts were handed out to specific people.