Tuna Festival at Mitsuwa

Under food:

Mitsuwa Marketplace
www.mitsuwa.com
595 River Rd
Edgewater, NJ 07020
(201) 941-9113

This weekend, we headed for the Giant Tuna Festival at Mitsuwa. I belive they have this event once a year, during fall, where they have a live demonstration of how a giant tuna (400+ lb) in its whole fish form gets to the sushi- and sashimi-size that most people recognize. The process is quite an undertaking.

We arrived early for the noontime exhibition and perused the kiosk that was set up for this occasion. On hand was the already-decapitated giant tuna head, which filled a goodly sized bucket. This would make great sour fish soup, but it won't fit in our fridge.

Giant tuna head on ice. I think this was on sale for $200. This particular fish was 400lb.

To kill some time, we wandered around the supermarket area and snagged some lunch at the food court before the action started. Once a crowd started building, we hurried along to get a prime spot.

This is the body of the tuna. Some prepwork was apparently done behind the scenes (gutting and removing the head), which was probably messy. Doesn't it look like an alien pod fromthis angle?

Alas, we were a bit slow as the fish butchers (fishmongers?) had already filleted one side. One team started cutting slabs for sashimi-grade tuna already.

Sushi-grade tuna in foreground. See that nice hunk of ruby red meat he's trimming? Three grades of sushi tuna were available, from toro ($60+/llb) to lesser cuts. Even novice that I am, I could see that the marbling on the better cuts was finer and more even. I guess that's why toro is like butter in your mouth.

It was a pretty involved process trying to cut the meat as close to the bone as possible. The fish butchers had to take frequent breaks too.




The sushi that they were making fresh on the spot was limited to only three per person. The cut is not from the fatty toro part, but neverhteless, it had a very silky and unctuous feel. That's the difference that real fresh fish has!