Only three places to my knowledge are using wild line caught blue fin tuna from yamayuki regularly.
ginza onodera, shoku, and yumeya.
Def a thing in Japan.
Ask em next time. They never say ranched or farmed. They always tell you wild if you ask. Or if they mention it. Surprised you’ve never heard anyone say wild blue fin
I asked a similar question and not sure if it’s just marketing
The importer told me it’s like
Heavily marbled usda prime beef
V
Grass fed older cows
Many people prize the fatty soft fish oil coating mouthfeel. But true lovers of fish want the taste of the meaty fish is what they say.
When you taste em side by side the difference is very obvious texture and mouthfeel wise. And the beef comparison is very apt. Personal preference wins on this one.
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I feel like I should have put all my replies into one box LOL.
I don’t know anything about fishing and only relay the info of those in the business. There is some qualitative difference in the fish itself but a lot of the difference is in the catching, bleeding, and storage of the fish.
Re: look of the fish.
Here’s a mix of the fatty belly and non belly of line caught.
Even tho it looks marbled. It’s not as rich and oily as other bluefin is.
I’m trying to find a better pic of a whole loin on my phone from a time in the shoku kitchen. Will post once I find.
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I think you may have meant to compare yellowfin tuna and bluefin tuna, not yellowtail amberjack and bluefin tuna. Otherwise, it’s kind of apples to oranges.
Perhaps - there is a lot of sketchy labeling in the fish industry - but when it comes to Japan and high-end sushi, the diversity of where things were caught, tuna in particular, makes me think that what they are serving are genuinely wild products. Not just talking about SGO (which btw is higher-end outside of Japan than in Japan, but that’s a different discussion).
All I’m saying is, I don’t think that there’s this much slippery labeling with high-end tuna in Japan as there may be with farmed salmon around the world.
Say what you want about SGO’s corporate background, but the ingredients they get here in LA are legit, some of the best one can get, stateside at least.
They purchase big from Yamayuki, in part because they have a whole network of restaurants that use it. I just had Yamayuki honmaguro at their Kaitenzushi in Omotesando, many pieces of it for cheap.
SGO’s even downplayed some ingredients by not mentioning a special “brand” of fish, for example, I’ve had mayoi-bonito and donchichi-aji that they just introduced simply as “bonito” and “horse mackerel,” respectively.
But I think that in America, if someone is serving the “best” tuna - i.e. wild caught honmaguro Pacific bluefin - they are going to let you know. People know tuna and it’s common for high-end sushi shops to announce (and show certificates) of where the tuna was caught and how much it weighed.
I think it’s perhaps important to point out that not all wild tuna is line-caught. Fisherman in different areas prefer different methods, be it line, pole, net. Some of the most favored tuna seasonally comes from Oma, and that’s largely by pole, but the handling is excellent, and as you pointed out,
is huge.
With that said, I’d be cautious of trying to glean too much comparison of tuna qualities by pictures
There are many factors affecting the appearance, beyond the source / origin / catching / pre-processing (the bleeding, storage, etc.).
There’s time (also controlled aging) and the age/weight and cut of the tuna itself.
There are at least 6 main sections of the body, 7 if you include the cheek. And regarding toro, “snow-covered” toro is going to look very different than the “snake belly” and “sand-scraper” cuts from the same tuna. Toro doesn’t just come from the belly or even cheek, but even the back. So it’s not just
There’s a lot more cuts to consider how appearance will be. Even how it’s handled, such as at Sushi Fujinaga taking apart of individual sinews is going to affect the appearance.
One chef served me a side by side of akami from Boston and Oma for comparison. I’d say
Yes, the “true taste” of great Pacific bluefin honmaguro akami, lean tuna, will be a bit “sour.” Which is why it pairs so well with akazu (though notably, the very godfather of sushi who brought sushi to a high-end level, started omakase style, and popularized expensive maguro used komezu, but that was probably a style choice for historical reasons).
I believe that for high-end sushi in Japan, chefs are pretty much exclusively serving Pacific bluefin, honmaguro, wild for tuna - at least from everything I’ve seen.
I believe that most maguro being served in general is yellowfin, ahi.
But, with increased appetite for and knowledge of more premium ingredients, combined with expanded access to great fish now in America via Sakasyu and such, many shops in America will be able to serve what many consider the “best” or at the very least more prestigious ingredients. Of course, there is excellent tuna from Spain and yes Boston.
I believe that within the fish itself, the economic and marketing choices of the restaurant and the cuts of the tuna itself will be driving this choice of what is bought and served more than any discernable differences between the species of bluefin.
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I corrected that. But it doesn’t make much difference: real bluefin costs way more than any other fish you’ll find at most sushi bars.
There’s as much confusion in this thread and subsequent articles linked in this thread as there are in real life tuna trading. It’s a contentious subject and the source of much frustration professionally and personally. I will say, the government entities like NOAA do a relatively good job at the import level of traceability of HMS(highly migratory species) but what happens at a distributor and then restaurant level is an entirely different animal.
I do believe most of the mistakes are innocent/accidental born from confusion and the rest born from laziness but there are probably a few others in the minority who try to take advantage of restaurant purchasers and probably less owners trying to take advantage of diners. That’s just my personal belief though, I have no data to back that up.
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maguro is supposed to refer to bluefin (of which there are several kinds), but other fish such as yellowfin/bigeye etc. are often sold as maguro. yellowfin is generally the least expensive wholesale and is generally never as fatty as bluefin. bigeye can be as good as some bluefin, but the amount of striations in the meat make it less of a single fish usable as sushi/sashimi.
an itamae once shared with me that when he went to the fish market, he always checked the tail/fins of each fish as that gave clues as to whether they were in an enclosed space (tails/fin ending up chewed up looking because they were bumping into other fish) vs. fish with beautifully shaped fins/tails as that was associated with fish that swam free - and as a consequence had better muscle tone - which has an impact on mouth feel. as a consequence i’ve been skeptical that ‘farmed’ fish can be as good quality as those fish allowed to swim free/migrate.
there are different types of blue fin categorized by where they’re caught. the most prized are those caught in water off tokyo, something having to do with the colder water resulting in fattier fish. bigeye (at it was so 20 years ago) are caught primarily around hawaii & off ecuador.
maguro means tuna, that historically meant bluefin because of what was used locally, now the prefix “hon” meaning “real” in “hon-maguro” is used to differentiate bluefin vs. others.
loosely, the thought is that the most prized (and most expensive) comes from Oma in Aomori. it’s not that close to Tokyo, but rather the northmost part of Honshu - Tohoku region, not Kanto.
tuna being great from cold waters up near there is due of course to the geography - topography and the waters at the Tsugaru straight, and the fish’s seasonality/diet/migration - but it also has to do with the fisherman in the villages and their methods (such as pole fishing, how its bled, etc). of course, there is good tuna from many places in Japan…it could be Ine, by Kyoto, or Toi, by Shizuoka, etc. etc. and there are many others, including Katsuura, Chiba semi-near Tokyo. but Oma tuna has produced some of the highest prices and as a brand is considered “most prized” by many, if one had to choose.
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The line caught maguro from Oma are certainly the most famous though I think there are other better tasting ones. Even the boss of Yamayuki said as much in this video:
I would highly recommend this video for anyone interested in learning more about maguro
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