Once you have had a great piece of bluefin akami, properly treated, marinated in traditional style, there is no going back. It doesn’t matter if the bluefin is Japanese, wild, farmed, or Mediterranean/Atlantic/Pacific farmed varietals or wild either.
I suspect you have not had a piece prepared a proper way, from the chef’s sourcing to the handling and to the processing (and the rest is the quality of skill and cut)…and unfortunately that happens a lot with places that slice and serve. And to be honest, the last two times I visited Mori Sushi under Maru san, the Boston bluefin pieces were underwhelming to me (all three cuts) as much as I really enjoy the place. Same goes for a several super famous restaurants in Tokyo famed for their supposed blue fin tuna specializations where instagrammers brag about the catch certificates and brand name purveyors.
I had a conversation with three people in the sake industry last month in Japan at a convention/show, and they said sake is incredibly hard to pair with bluefin tuna sushi…and I told them, not true it can be done… a skilled chef could draw out and maximize the flavors of the bluefin with multiple techniques (aging being one of them, then zuke but that’s only part of the formula), and bring up the acidity and umami of the shari with the right seasoning and sushi vinegars to bring into balance, and then you will have a perfect match. I know because I experienced this and confirmed it will work if done correctly.
Some people (in Japan and perhaps parts of Southern Taiwan) prefer blander tuna, more gamey/wild/metallic taste (iron irich) or perhaps too much struggling when being caught.
Some chefs can only offer certain grades of bluefin, but don’t apply maximum skill to make the experience pleasant for the customer (Google Gourmet says he went to Shimizu, so if you’ve had his tuna, you will know how legendary it is, and his cuts are not premium grade, but he puts in so much preparation work to elevate its deliciousness).
i am certain that i have not had “a great piece of bluefin akami, properly treated, marinated in traditional style”. but if coming across one is so difficult i am also certain very few of those who fetishize bluefin tuna–including on this board–have done so either.
but that’s neither here nor there really regarding the question i asked jl regarding his statement that “the complexity and nuances of great honmaguro akami (lean cuts), and all its possible preparations, encapsulates the very essence and history of sushi.”
the article i posted suggested that the ascendancy of bluefin tuna is a post-70s phenomenon. now it is manifestly the case that in the intervening decades bluefin’s reputation among sushu aficionados who came of age in this period rose sharply, and perhaps this is true of current generation sushi chefs as well. but if the article i posted is broadly accurate it is somewhat hyperbolic to suggest that the preparation of bluefin tuna “encapsulates the very essence and history of sushi”.
as to whether many (japanese) sushi chefs reverence bluefin, i confess i have no way of measuring this possibility relative to other fish. i’ve certainly heard some sushi chefs say that white and silvery fish is where true nuance lies. i would also not fall over in shock if someone suggested that given the price that can be charged for bluefin sushi chefs are more than willing to inflate its reputation.
Bluefin tuna is largely expensive due to customer demand and its popularity. History aside, I doubt that now it’s inflated as a marketing gimmick. Rather, if there was one piece of sushi that’s emblematic of the Tokyo style which is popular, it’s likely (lean) Pacific bluefin tuna (honmaguro akami). Yes, gizzard shad is very much there as well, but bluefin has a wider appeal on a worldwide scale. Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly rare and expensive.
Lean bluefin tuna, especially marinated (akamizuke) is my favorite piece of sushi when done right. That’s because when it’s prepared properly, one can discern all of the constituent elements that make great sushi and the piece of nigiri greater than the sum of its ingredients. When you have a great piece of lean bluefin tuna (whose true taste happens to be slightly sour/minerally at times), you get to discern the proper temperature contrast; mouthfeel w/r/t proportions and knifework/drape; how the fish is a foil to the rice’s sourness, texture, just right pleasant stickiness and “loose” packing; the subtle sweetness of real wasabi; good shoyu marinade; etc. It’s a piece that can’t hide any flaws but rather a chef can showcase his or her skills. Further, tuna significantly varies of course by its provenance, area from which it’s cut, compatibility with aging, its fat content and how the taste and cut/knifework vary accordingly, etc. it’s certainly not the only detail-laden piece and yes, kohada and many bluefish are highly skill dependent, but it can be well argued that lean tuna sushi is elemental sushi and it’s achieved an almost secondary meaning as Edomae sushi (the taste of tuna also has more widespread appeal than that of blue/silverfish).
I had a conversation with the sushi chef Taku San at Sushi Sho Waikiki about exactly this, as he prepared a comparison between Boston and Oma tuna (and back cut, with some aging). The two pieces had different knifwork because of all these details which could be appreciated.
We also can’t discount all the ceremony of tuna auctions at fish markets, how a tuna is broken down and distributed to all different restaurants, its visual appeal (red is one of the 5 elementary colors in washoku), etc. so a bluefin tuna catch is culturally important as well.
thanks for all that. accurate to say that all of this is post-70s as the smithsonian article suggests? if true, this wouldn’t discount any of your points, of course; but historical context/specificity is important too.
Edit: I skimmed the Smithsonian article on my phone as I’m at work. It doesn’t really say that Bluefin tuna itself was discarded - just Toro, the fatty cuts. That much is well known. However even that Smithsonian article seems to suggest that lean tuna was at the start of nigirizushi as we know it. Not post 70s for tuna in general but a specific cut of tuna. Pretty sure @J_L and I were discussing lean bluefin / akami, which is very much part of the essential sushi canon even if the more expensive toro cut historically wasn’t.
Anywhere where I can read more on this? I particularly remember one dude who bought the most expensive tuna at auction, aged it, then shipped it out to his various restaurants around the world.
no, it refers to bluefin as a whole not really catching on till the 70s. there’s a reference to yellowfin being more in vogue earlier.
and against toro it doesn’t counterpoise akami but instead " the often crunchier, more subtly flavored muscle tissues of animals like squid, clams, various jacks, flounder and, perhaps most of all, sea bream".
One big mistake people make when quoting sources, is only relying on and trusting the accuracy of Western media which sometimes gets it very wrong, especially when they miss a large part of the big picture or they don’t research history properly, and/or puts out bits and pieces of information (sometimes due to 2nd or 3rd hand quoted sources) that gets misinterpreted or cut off.
I spent some time looking up Japanese sites on the topic earlier, because I am personally curious about this and the timeline.
Akami was already served before WWII at Yoshino Sushi Honten, one of the most oldest and respected original institutions of old school Edomae Sushi (now at Nihonbashi, Tokyo). They are also credited for being the first establishment that introduced toro sushi/nigiri. Yoshino started in 1879, and it wasn’t until the 2nd generation took over when toro was introduced as sushi. The starting point of Yoshino Honten only provides a data point for tuna as sushi.
Chutoro and toro were way too fatty for the locals to consume, and it wasn’t until post WWII when its popularity went up, which then the airlines capitalized on this in the 70s to transport bluefin from the US to Japan, but solely to meet the surging demand for fatty bluefin tuna.
Last but not least, if you look at the Japanese wikipedia page for Edomae sushi, it quotes a historic archive (more like an encylopedia) called 『[守貞謾稿] (Morisadamanko) that was documented at the end of the Edo Period around a variety of topics (started in 1837 and took over 30 years to complete 35 volumes). Within one of the volumes is a reference to Edomae sushi, in which one of the ingredients or items served was maguro (although the source listed maguro sashimi). There is also recorded history somewhere that the practice of pickling/curing tuna for preservation has been done even before that. Other Japanese sites referring to Morisadamanko verify this as well.
It is assumed that even back in the day, the default tuna used was bluefin.
So to say bluefin tuna is a post 70s phenomenon is incorrect, unless you narrow it down to fatty tuna but even that is a bit of a loaded statement as summarized by Corson.
thanks for that. however, even corson’s article notes that tuna was beginning to be eaten in the 19th century, so no new news there that a 19th century encyclopedia would reference it. the question is more of when it became associated with/emblematic of sushi.
Ginza Onodera Dec 2017. Could have got a piece of the action in WeHo. Here’s a pic
@MyAnnoyingOpinions I was in the same camp as you, thought the appeal of well prepared akami was a bunch of crock.
Until I had it at Saito’s branch and at Sawada. Fortunately I can now get my fix without traveling to Tokyo at a few of the new places in NYC which do a decent job with tuna.
i don’t doubt it. but all of this just seems to underline that it is a waste of time and money–even leaving aside the sustainability concerns–to eat it at the vast majority of sushi restaurants, whether in the u.s or even in japan.
Like everything else just a matter of what one is obsessed about. Just like your passion for spirits. I buy a decent amount every year but I still can’t get to the point of waxing poetically about the nuances of one distillery vs another, lowland vs the highlands, double, triple, quadruple casked, pot still etc etc. like you do . Wife thinks I’m nuts and wasting money and taking up all her storage space in the kitchen.
That’s why it is only in half-jest when I say Keep Sushi Snobby. If fishermen would under-harvest the tuna (and allow those poor juvenile specimens to reach breeding age before being served to the n00bs frequenting SushiBoy), then tuna prices would be insanely high, but in the same vein, just perhaps we’d be able to let the wild stock replenish itself…
Human nature being what it is though, the evolution of Homo sapiens represents the next great extinction level event on this planet… Sad.
. Wife thinks I’m nuts and wasting money and taking up all her storage space in the kitchen.
