Shit! What time does the outer market close?!?!?!?
We check into the Strings at 3pm. 32 minutes to Tsukiji on the Tokaido rail, and Uni for happy happy hour!
Or, we can go direct to Toyosu. I may be a sappy sentimentalist, but the new market just seems too sterile to me. Maybe after the patina sets in after a few more years…
Honestly my friend, just hit any depachika/supermarket for the boxed uni. It’s basically the second stop of the day for many of those boxes of uni after initial sorting at Tsukiji, and it still blows away anything we can hope to get in the states.
Plus, while you’re at the store, you can buy some premium nori and pair that with some bento koshihikari rice and feast on another level.
(Agree that Toyosu looks too clean (?!)… I haven’t been to Tsukiji since the relocation, but the photos make me miss the old market)
Maybe it’s made elsewhere, then transported?
Yes, the fattier cuts (chutoro and otoro) brings in the yelpster business, but the complexity and nuances of great honmaguro akami (lean cuts), and all its possible preparations, encapsulates the very essence and history of sushi. #FTCavatarphoto
We were baffled by the cold saba and tamago. One would think that someone of Mori’s caliber would recognize the temp of the fish and tamago when he touched them.
No doubt he knew, but #intheweeds
Time to hit up Maru-san again?
But the terroir, THE TERROIR!! 
Warming up nicely. The Sakura are starting to breakout.
Having some Kit Kats to honor the season.
That seems inexcusable.
Are you a terroirist?! ;-D
Here, in the Michelin-forsaken land of the food heathens, the sakura bloomed on Sawtelle last weekend (photo below). Enjoy the hanami!
i thought i’d read that the obsession with and prizing of bluefin tuna is of relatively recent provenance in japan (1970s and on). not true?
here, for example.
The dramatic turnaround began in the early 1970s. Beef had become popular in Japan, and with a national palate now more appreciative of strong flavors and dark flesh, bluefin tuna became a desired item. It was also about this time that cargo planes delivering electronics from Japan to the United States and returning home empty began taking advantage of the opportunity to buy cheap tuna carcasses near New England fishing docks and sell them back in Japan for thousands of dollars.
“Bluefin tuna is an amazing example of something we have been made to think is an authentic Japanese tradition,” Corson says. “Really, it was a marketing scheme of the Japanese airline industry.”
Akami is tasty and deep.
And I love flying JAL and ANA.
yes, but that’s some distance from being the same thing as:
the complexity and nuances of great honmaguro akami (lean cuts), and all its possible preparations, encapsulates the very essence and history of sushi.
So the reverence for akami within the sushi chef community doesn’t exist when you talk to the itamae out there? 'Cuz it certainly appears that way to me.
pray tell where?
Do the super premium purveyors sort uniformly? btw the tip about looking for non-uniform colored trays came from the chef at Noda (NYC), assumed it was reliable 
@Google_Gourmet surely you can do better than just gobble up uni at Tsukiji Outer Market? 
Torattoriatsukidiparadhizo - Tsukiji/Italian [Tabelog] Tsukiji Trattoria Paradiso (Sorrento style Italian x Japanese shellfish/clams pasta at the very least)
Tutto Bene Tsukiji Tutto Bene - TokyoDiningOut
Uotake: kisetsuryouriuotake - Tsukiji/Seafood [Tabelog]
多け乃 Takeno - Tsukiji/Izakaya (Tavern) [Tabelog] for Sakana Nitsuke…
and of course Kitsuneya - Tsukiji/Horumon (BBQ Offel) [Tabelog] for legendary horumon don (or just get niku tofu)
oh look for the tamagoyaki soft serve ice cream with the shaved freeze dried tamagoyaki bits, somewhere in the outer market.
Yes, word is that Toyosu food building is like a badly designed mall food court multi story. The food at certain non sushi establishments or sushi places that are less coveted by tourists are still great, but the overall vibe and flow stinks. I didn’t make it there last month as I took my sake adventures elsewhere…
For the Kita Murasaki uni from unicorn/brand name purveyors like Higashizawa and Hadate, they look really pristine and solid and neatly arranged with no multi tones… remember the stuff Bourdain had at Jiro in No Reservations Tokyo, kind of like that where he closed his eyes and had an unigasm? Looks quite uniform to me.
As far as bafun, I’ve seen some sushi restaurants carry some pristinely arranged in boxes (although same shades, maybe all females). @Google_Gourmet’s box is Hokkaido Nemuro uni which was also in season a month ago and also now, some are smaller sized so they require more spoons for one piece of sushi, and I’ve rarely seen mixed shades/colors and uneven presentation packing in the box. The lower cost boxes sold to the public but still taste mighty fine for the price, would make sense to not put so much thought into sorting. I never tried ones from a high end depachika supermarket.
Honestly some of the Nemuro’s I had of late were even better than the Hadate I had last September (at Sushi Namba). Sushi Yoshizumi was serving nemuro quite recently too and delightful as usual (and higher grade/quality/sweetness than the competition).
Thanks, certainly foods for thought. Tutto Bene looks good. Our last meal in Taipei two weeks ago was Italian. About time to scratch that itch again.
Finally had that horumon in January. The queue had always been too long, but sufferable this time. It was good, but wouldn’t wait a half hour for it.
We had Tuna Cheek Don a few shops up from the horumon place last year. Well worth the ten bucks or so.
We’ll probably forego the new market this round. We’d already hit the Shimizu and the Namazu fish markets.
Had to have the Sakura Ebi and Sharasu, of course.
Thanks again for the suggestions. We’ll probably hit Tsukiji in the morning. Start with some fresh made Tomago and …
