Sushi Workshop at Tsukiji Fish Market
25th October 2016
The Tsukiji Fish Market is a Tokyo institution, the place that launches millions of pieces of sushi.
Both Nick and I have a healthy love for sushi, so it was on our hit list from early days of planning. We came across the Sushi Insider Workshop online and as it combines exploring the market with making (and most importantly, eating) lots of sushi, we booked our spots immediately.
The market is a world within a city! We arrived at 9am, which is probably halfway through the working day here and it was in full swing.
I'm glad we had our guides and chef (who is apparently a part-time MMA fighter too) to take us around the outer and inner market, as quite honestly, we would have been in the way otherwise, and we would have missed so much.
The inner market is serious business. The fishmongers have a lot of work to do, and they must work fast. Wandering, glassy-eyed tourists slow them down, so you're better off as we were - in 2 groups of 4 - listening to the tips and directions of guides who can show you how to take it all in without getting mown down by a pickup van, or knocking over a crate of expensive blowfish!
The inner market is huge, but perfectly organised in a grid system, with fascinating things to see as you walk around. Blowfish hanging like crazy dream catchers from above a stall and varied sizes of eels circling round and overlapping in their buckets are just some of things you'll see.
On a side note, for anyone who loves to cook and is constantly on the hunt for the perfect knife, we got a valuable insider tip from a fishmonger who was sharpening his knives as we passed. He showed us this spectacular chef's knife that cost him about €120. Then he said "Number 2 Knife". He then held up an Ikea knife, which he said cost about €17 and declared, with real love in his voice "Number 1 Knife"! (Yay Ikea!)
After we'd finished wandering around the market, we headed back to our kitchen to learn how to make sushi. Our chef showed us how to fillet and slice fish for sushi. Nick turned out to have a natural knack for slicing the fish.
We then took turns grinding wasabi from fresh wasabi plants. Have you ever seen one? This was my first time to see them, and they were just so funky looking. I loved them! Their taste had much more zing than wasabi usually does, and almost a herbal quality to it.
Once everything was prepared, we started to make nigiri (rice with a slice of fish on top). Apparently, it's all about the curve of the nigiri and the balance of fish to rice.
Thankfully, we learned the correct way to eat sushi, which was a bit of a game changer. Of course, you can eat it any way you want, but turning it on its side, picking it up from the side rather than the top, and dipping only the fish into soy sauce makes it much easier to eat.
We also made some hand rolls and smaller rolls, but the nigiri was the clear winner for sheer tastiness.
To top off the morning, we enjoyed sake tasting with 6 different types of sake ranging from cloudy, almost malty sake to sweet, fizzy sake.
There was no way we could finish all of the fish, but we gave it our best shot and left in the early afternoon with happy bellies and a better knowledge of how to eat and enjoy sushi.
If you're a sushi-lover visiting Tokyo, I definitely recommend checking out this workshop. It's one of the more expensive activities we did in Tokyo, but we learned so much, and ate the freshest, tastiest sushi we've ever had, so it was completely worth the money.