World

Nothing Fishy Here, Just Sushi Heaven

January 5, 2001 / 9:05 AM EST / AP

The first auction of the year at Tokyo's famous Tsukiji fish market reeled in a whopper on Friday: A bluefin tuna that set a record price of about $25 a mouthful.

The upscale fish sold for just over 20 million yen — some $174,000, — a market official said.

At about $395 a pound, the 444-pound bluefin was by far the most expensive sold at the Tsukiji Central Fish Market since 1996 when a 250-pound bluefin tuna went for $44,000.

Called honmaguro in Japanese, the bluefin can grow to 10 feet long and weigh as much as 650 pounds. It is served raw as sashimi — without rice — or as sushi — with rice.

Tsukiji market official Takashi Yoshida declined to identify Friday's big spender.

Both the current and previous record bluefin were caught in the Pacific Ocean off Aomori prefecture in northern Japan, an area known for fine tuna.

"It's kind of like a brand name," market official Yoshida said.

A chef at one upscale Tokyo sushi restaurant claimed it would be impossible for the buyer to recoup his investment and suggested he paid for bragging rights.

"Japanese people have a weakness for New Year's firsts and this was the first catch of the new year," said Makoto Miyamoto, a chef at the Kyubei restaurant in the elegant Hotel Okura. "It's the kind of thing you can boast to your customers about."

His restaurant typically pays $85 to $110 per pound for bluefin tuna.

Officials at the fish market told the national Asahi daily that a sushi-sized slice of the record-setting New Year's tuna — a rectangle 2 inches long and an inch wide — would be worth about $25.

A two-piece order of ordinary tuna sushi sells for about $4-$5 at restaurants.

Regional, rare and seasonal delicacies are prized in Japan, where even in these days of economic gloom a serving of Kobe beef, from cows raised on beer and massaged daily to make the meat soft and succulent, runs about $85.

At the Tsukiji market, an ounce of whale bacon costs about $7.35 wholesale. Whale is served in special restaurants where the markup is considerable.

On the vegetarian side, people line up to buy such specialties as the very freshest "matsutake," or pine mushrooms, a toadstool-shaped fungus known for its imposing cap, delicate flavor and brief growing season.