Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo

fish • Market • Tokyo • Japan

The world's largest fish market in Tokyo and called Tsukiji. Perhaps the word is not quite accurately convey the idea of ​​the biggest on the planet Focus fish trade. Then the following figures: Japan accounts for ten percent of the global fish consumption. Simply put, every tenth caught in oceans and seas fish gets to the Japanese. And 87% of the wholesale fish and seafood market in Japan focused on Tsukiji. In absolute terms, it is 660 thousand tons per year.
(Total 19 photos)

Source: Zhzhurnal / http: //kirulya.livejournal.com/

1) Even the name of the Tsukiji is directly related to the sea, because the sea of ​​this area of ​​Tokyo, literally and arose: Tsukiji translated as "made land", ie land reclaimed from the sea.

2) Long before dawn, hundreds of trucks come in Tsukiji - driven fish and marine reptiles from around the world. Barely glimmer light begins auction.

3) The majestic tuna carcasses ..

4) luxury pink salmon in plastic boxes, sealed in cellophane ...

5) Sea shells of all kinds and shapes with their bizarre inhabitants ...

6) giant crabs, bristling with powerful claws ...

7) already packaged in boxes ...

8) Nematocera lobsters ...

9) octopus ...

10) - and hundreds of thousands of different sea creatures, the vast majority of which a foreigner sees for the first time in my life, and now you do not suspect any of their existence, even more so, that all that can be eaten.

11) People who are busily walking about side by side with you on fish series, by the way, deserves perhaps more attention than the fish itself. It's idols in the world of Japanese haute cuisine. All the most famous chefs of the best restaurants and hotels in Tokyo-class begin their morning with the obligatory trip to the Tsukiji, where the catch is taken for its culinary achievements. In general, fish belly Tokyo - a Mecca for gourmets.

12) When the eye becomes accustomed to the incredible variety of fish and shellfish - if this is possible at all to get used to - the next thing you notice is the almost complete lack of fish odor. Boxes with marine catch comes with seiners have carefully sorted; fish and seafood washed, as a first-grader at the school line on 1 September. Considering all this exciting splendor, should, however, not to relax and look at the two on the sides: the narrow rows dashing sweep incredible design motorized carts with boxes of fish. Trolley mounted on a metal barrel with a burning coal. On top of the barrel wheel.

13) Motor vehicles, probably working as a locomotive firebox, giving this unit on wheels pretty decent speed. Japanese stands on the cart and steers. Where he taxied the next moment, knows only himself. Probably soon Teamsters with their antediluvian carriages replace any intelligent machines or robots, but from Tsukiji lose some of its charm today.

14) Even more to lose Tsukiji, if to some hyper-vigilance sanitary inspector will come to mind to close the tiny restaurants, perched on the edges of the market, where now you can enjoy sushi and sashimi from the freshest, just gutted fish. By the way, the owners of the market puzzled the creation of the site .

15) At the Tsukiji daily selling 3000 tuna weighing over 200 tons. Of one thousand shops here almost half focuses only on the tuna, or maguro in Japanese. However, one name in the case of tuna in Japan will not be enough. Species of tuna there are so many; Japanese are more likely appreciate the so-called "blue" tuna. And it - the fatty part of the underbelly, called "Rotor".

16) In view of this meat tuna is not a raspberry-red, which is usually served in sushi bars, and pink with white veins. It is from the "Rotor" obtained the best gourmet sushi and sashimi. The cost, of course, appropriate. At the fish market Tsukiji pounds of "blue" tuna is worth an average of $ 150; "Rotor" of such fish will be even more expensive.

17) If you look at the labels on the boxes of tuna, which come in the morning at the Tsukiji fish market, it turns out that they arrived almost from all over the world, but mainly from the Mediterranean Sea. This is not a "wild" caught on the high seas tuna and fish with Mediterranean farms where tuna are bred specifically for the Japanese market. The trick here is this. "Wild" is similar to tuna torpedo - it cuts through the water at speeds up to seventy miles per hour. Its meat contains little fat, because in search of food such tuna is doing hundreds of miles a day. Another matter Privolnoe habitation on ryboferme where tuna is provided three meals a day; from this and start up his prized by Japanese gourmets zhirok. Most of the tuna farms in the Mediterranean, by the way, is owned by Japanese owners.

18) Here it is - a traditional green Japanese horseradish wasabi (here it is not a powder, as in commercial establishments, and freshly prepared)

19) Zoom.

All these and many other little tricks explain why the fish auction in Tsukiji boil no less passion than on the Tokyo Stock Exchange . After all, competition among Japanese cooks mad: in this country per capita are more restaurants than anywhere else in the world that makes the best chefs in the crack of dawn to rush to Tsukiji in search of a better explanation.