

On Sushi and Tsukiji - wolfish
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2007/06/sushi200706?printable=true&currentPage=all

======
patio11
The best sushi I've ever had is at a little hole in the wall in my small
Japanese town. It probably tastes different than the $400 a plate stuff, but
it would be wasted on me anyhow. Why do I keep going back? Because the sushi
chef is a great guy, and chats with me for the whole meal. Favorite topic of
conversation: Ultima Online.

His proudest UO accomplishment: GMing in cooking. On fish steaks, naturally.

~~~
noodle
nice. the best sushi i've ever had was sushi for breakfast at Tsukiji. fresh
as you can get it. which would've probably only been made better if i had a
friendly, mmorpg-playing chef. was too busy to chat him up.

------
tjic
> two million kilograms of seafood Tsukiji handles every day ... The Fulton
> Fish Market, in New York City, the second-largest fish market in the world,
> moves only 115 tons a year, an average of less than half a ton each working
> day.

These numbers don't make sense to me.

Certainly Tsukiji is bigger than Fulton, but I'm expected to believe that
Fulton moves 115 tons per year ... or, what, 500 lbs of fish per day?

I imagine that Fulton moves 115 tons PER DAY, and Tsukiji moves 2,000 tons PER
DAY.

Fulton doing 6% of Tsukiji is plausible. Fulton doing 0.02% is not.

~~~
misterbwong
I think you're right. It seems the cited 115 tons/year is a mistake that is
currently flowing around the internet.

[http://www.worldhum.com/travel-
blog/item/inside_great_sushi_...](http://www.worldhum.com/travel-
blog/item/inside_great_sushi_and_the_worlds_biggest_fish_market_20070523/)

<http://www.chow.com/media/2007/6?page=7>

This paper has the Fulton Fish Market moving approx. 115,000 tons per year,
based on an NYT article from 2005. This puts the FFM near a much more
respectable ~300 tons/day.

<http://www.economics.ox.ac.uk/Research/wp/pdf/paper254.pdf>

------
saikat
"The little guy with the big knife is Tsunenori Iida. He speaks not as an
individual but as an emanation, the present voice, of the generations whose
blood flows in him and who held the long knife in lifetimes before him, just
as he speaks of Masahisa as if he were the same Masahisa who wrought the first
samurai sword, in the days of dark mist. Thus it is that he tells me he's been
here since 1861, during the Tokugawa shogunate, when this city, Tokyo, was
still called Edo."

Reminds me of the metaphor Clay Shirky uses in his "Love, Internet Style"
(<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1TZaElTAs>) speech. He talks about the Ise
Shinto shrine, which the Japanese claim to be 1300 years old even though the
building itself is rebuilt periodically. The Japanese think it is 1300 years
old because the function of the shrine has existed for 1300 years, just like
the function of this man has been around since 1861, even if he, the mere
physical manifestation of this function, has not. Interesting way to think and
define oneself.

------
kaiguy
No talk at all about dwindling fish stocks, high mercury content, and Japan's
obvious global destruction of marine ecosystems. I wish people would get real,
and try to realize that we're basically raping the ocean. No different than
hunting wild Animals in Africa and airlifting them directly to $400 plates...

------
iron_ball
"Not Hacker News," but I love this article, and it's been in my bookmarks list
for a long time. I still haven't been able to spare the $700 for a meal at
Masa... but it's on my bucket list.

~~~
wolfish
I thought it was pretty interesting, and felt was inline with the spirit of
the guidelines:

On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes
more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the
answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.

~~~
davidw
More importantly, it's not a "toxic" subject - something that will get people
riled up, like economics or politics. If you don't find it interesting, it's
pretty easy to ignore, as long as there aren't too many other 'interesting
tidbits' stories.

------
KSS
You can see the whole process of a blue fin tuna's journey Canada's east coast
to Tsukiji on the Canada TV show "Chef Aboard" Episode "Bluefin Tuna, Canada
to Japan" at <http://www.foodtv.ca/video/>

You have drill down the menus. I don't get the direct link. Click on "Full
Episodes A-E" in the middle bar and then Chef Abroad.

The Aircraft Carrier episode and Tokyo Food Adventure episode are interesting
too.

------
aaronbrethorst
Tsukiji is a great place to go on your first day in Tokyo, given that the
action's all in the early morning and you're still jetlagged. I posted a few
photos from it and other Tokyo sights after my vacation there last year:
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaronbrethorst/sets/72157604531...](http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaronbrethorst/sets/72157604531936538/)

------
rgrieselhuber
Just had great sushi in Tsukiji last week. Great article. Thanks for posting.

~~~
joe_adk
The place in the article, Daiwa sushi, is great after a morning of wandering
around (if you can handle sushi for breakfast). Probably the best I've ever
had. Only problem is, its small and popular.

~~~
rgrieselhuber
Good to know. By the way, does adk stand for _that_ adk? I was actually in
Tsukiji for a meeting there.

~~~
joe_adk
Nope, no relation. Just the first 3 letters of my last name.

