Become a fugu chef in Tokyo?

“The test is coming up soon and chefs are getting ready,” one wholesaler confirmed.

Hmm… So, you can practice to take a test to be a licensed fugu chef? Well, actually regulations do not make it so easy for just anyone to treat the deadly puffer fish

San’in Trip: Day Two–Follow the crab

“You are lucky, it’s the last day of the crab season…. Where did you come from?” the owner asked as we were leaving. Then the natural flow of question lead to why. “To visit Chiyomusubi Shuzo”, we responded. “Haaa, Chiyomusubi-san????”

Japanese Language for Japanese Food

I’d like to share a truly useful resource for acquiring Japanese. This comes dangerously close to crossing over from my role as food and sake otaku to my day job of language otaku, but here goes anyway. Smart.fm is a website for learning, especially for learning language. That sounds very simple, but the tools they provide are based on sound cognitive science research and work well. If you want to learn more about how Smart.fm works, please watch this short video, or just take my word for it that the system works and read on to the good stuff-food.

Yamaso-Oyster Wholesaler at Ota Shijo

So, where to buy raw oysters year-round in Tokyo? When the great oyster bar bargains are over, and if you can shuck your own oysters, Yamaso is the place.
This oyster wholesaler sits right in the Suisan-to, or the warehouse like building for handling the marine products, at the Ota Shijo. They specialize in imported [...]

Ota Wholesale Market: A Great Tsukiji Alternative

Back in the midst of the Norovirus scare that spread across the whole nation, we went ahead and planned an oyster dinner for some friends at home anyway. But during that winter of 2007 it appeared that raw oysters had simply disappeared completely from markets and restaurants because a health report from the government somewhat [...]

Is Tsukiji Wholesale Market Open to the Public?

Photo: Sign at Tsukiji
A while back,I picked up a printed Tsukiji Vistor’s Guide in English issued by Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale market at Tsukiji Seimon entrance. After searching for an official site listing the actual rules for visiting Tsukiji and I could not find any, so I went back to the brochure.
The brochure brings [...]

How and where to buy knives in Tokyo

As I said in my previous post, my week with knives, I am going to list some areas and shops for knives in Tokyo.
Occasionally, I am asked where to shop for a Japanese knife. Not being a pro chef, my usual advice is to go to a couple of shops. When you are there, [...]

My week with knives

For some reason, I have had so much knife talks over the past week and I feel I am on some kind of mission to talk about hocho. This week, I bought two knives – Tsukiji Aritsugu nakiri bocho for myself and a Global Cook Knife for my mother. These two purchases just happened to [...]

3,000 Tuna A Day At Tsukiji

At Tsukiji

While I was working on a post about Tsukiji for Nihon Sun, I got really curious about how much seafood moves through that giant market each day.
Finding the monthly sales results at Tsukiji was easy. It’s a matter of public information and the Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market publishes the data monthly. So, I looked [...]

Christmas Dinner at Gomangoku

Why Christmas? We’re already past Groundhog’s Day, right?
In the next couple of posts, I am returning to 2008 to post things I missed during the midst of my computer hell in which not one, but two laptops died in my hands. So, think back to December, and I will work my way from there to [...]