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| The emcee initiates the bidding process with the audience! |
Guests are seated around a kaitan or conveyor belt, dining on freshly made sushi that they can
pick from the moving belt but my eyes are riveted to the bluefin tuna that’s
lying lifelessly on a cutting board. I
realise that we arrived just on time. While
the emcee-auctioneer is adjusting his microphone, a master carver is strapping
on his gloves to start the carving demo.
Fish Carving
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| The master carver slicing into the Bluefin tuna |
I’m standing behind a crowd, at least three deep away from
the kaitan but I still have a clear view of the master carver as he raises his
sharp knife to effortlessly slice off the fish’s jaw. With deft movements of his sharp knife, he
removes the skin off the top of the fish head and proceeds to carve out one of
the most coveted parts of the fish head – its fleshy cheeks. The cut pieces are passed to an assistant who
quickly puts them in trays and wraps with cling film as the emcee gives a
running commentary in Japanese and addresses the audience with an upraised arm.
 |
| Members of the audience responding with counter-bids! |
When the audience responds with a chorus of Japanese words
and similar upraised arms, I notice their pointed fingers and guess they are
giving lower counter bids to the auctioneer’s offer price. As more fish parts are offered, the shouting
gets louder as diners and members of the audience join in to call out bids. Carving a fish is certainly a fine art and I guess
I can cope better with watching, probably because the process is bloodless.
I learn that various parts of the tuna are sold separately
because each part commands different prices – the most expensive being the
fatter portions of the fish – like the Ootoro
or belly meat. It is the norm for sashimi or raw fish connoisseurs to bid
for the best deals and get their favourite parts of the fish for their own
consumption or for re-sale in their restaurants. From the enthusiastic bidding for the fish
parts, I can see that raw fish lovers know that the best parts of the fish
tastes so good that they should never be cooked!
Fish Market
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| Customers shopping for the choicest fresh seafood |
As the bidding for freshly cut fish continues in the Daiki
Suisan Kaiten Sushi restaurant, our group moves to the adjacent Daiki Suisan Fish
Market for a tour of the wholesale outlet where shoppers can buy home fresh
seafood or arrange for the restaurant to prepare and serve the seafood in a
meal. Established as a leading seafood
wholesaler, Daiki Suisan has a distinct advantage as a retailer with their
consistent supply of fresh products from around the country for their group of
restaurants in the Kinki Region. Its
past noon but the market still has a throng of shoppers browsing around in the
various sections to buy fresh fish, shell-fish, prawns and snow crabs, pre-cooked
seafood as well as packed cooked meals.
 |
| Customers can also buy cooked meals here |
As I walk around the market to look at the interesting range
of seafood, I’m also stealing looks at the shoppers and thinking about the
traditional Japanese diet that promotes longer life spans. The Japanese has the longest life expectancy
in the world, averaging 78 years for men and 85 for women, and many Japanese
look remarkably young for their age.
As I
watch one of their staff slicing raw fish before arranging them in a pretty fan
on a plate, I’m convinced that I should adopt the Japanese eating habit because
raw fish retains more nutrients and slows down the aging process!
 |
| Take your pick of fresh cuts of sashimi! |
Fast Facts
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| Sashimi can't get any fresher than platters like these from the fish market! |
Fish carving demos are held daily at 12 noon with a second
demo session at 6pm on weekends. Daiki
Suisan has two restaurants located close to their Fish Market at Nakamura-cho,
Kita-ku, Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture, Japan.
For more info, visit website: www.daiki-suisan.com
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