As we’ve noted a number of times lately, Japanese cuisine is getting lots of press these days, from stories about the sudden popularity of 500-year-old kaiseki among hip Western chefs to Tokyo’s thriving restaurant scene. But among the, uh, meatiest pieces I’ve read recently is Nick Tosches’s story in the June issue of Vanity Fair about the world’s greatest fish market, officially called the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Central Wholesale Market, but often referred to simply by its place name, Tsukiji. It’s huge, spanning nearly 40 football fields. Roughly 60,000 people work there. But the most stunning statistic is this: An estimated 2,000 tons or more of fish move through the market daily—by comparison, Tosches notes, at the world’s second largest market, Fulton Fish Market in New York City, 115 tons pass through in an entire year. 

Tsukiji is a world unto itself where all kinds of seafood are sold. High stakes tuna auctions are held daily and on occasion, a kind of “tuna mania” takes hold, Tosches writes. One day a glorious tuna specimen sold for $170,000, an amount, he writes, that the “possessed bidder...could never recoup.”

Tosches’s wide-ranging report explores the history of sushi in the United States—he credits Americans’ love of sugar, of all things, with sushi’s current popularity. He also covers the decline of authentic wild wasabi served in restaurants and the difference, at least in his opinion, between good and bad sushi joints.

“The difference between a bad sushi joint and a good sushi joint is: at a good sushi joint, the sweetness of the sushi doesn’t challenge the taste of the fish,” he writes. And at a great sushi joint, he adds, “the sweetness of the sushi doesn’t challenge the taste of the fish, the fish is excellent, and, piece after piece...the meal unfolds as a concert of many varied tastes, some delicate and some strong, all in a sequence of subtle harmony and balance that leaves you exquisitely satisfied...”

It’s a great read. Unfortunately, it isn’t available online.

For more on Tsukiji, National Geographic has several nice shots and Wikipedia has an entry.

Travelotica offers a brief guide to visiting the market, noting: “The auctions, held at the back of the market, aren’t officially open to the public, but no one will stop you slipping in quietly to watch the buyers and sellers gesticulating wildly over polystyrene crates of squid, sea urchins, crab and the like.”

Related on World Hum:
* Japan Unveils Plan for ‘Sushi Police’
* Japan’s Latest Budget Accommodation: Internet Cafes

Photo by alexdecarvalho via Flickr, (Creative Commons).