Smoothie Vs Sashimi
Smoothies are the green flags of the breakfast buffet. I bow my head in respect as I cross them on my way to the bacon-and-sausage counter. Where lies my salvation in neat crisp rows, glistening in anticipation. My partner eyes my plate laden with meaty goodies and waxes eloquent with her eyes. Her plate is full of fruity goodness sourced from farms full of good intentions. Next to her plate is a smoothie, of course. She’s the poster child of restraint and intent.
However, when you come for a food tour of Tsujiki Outer Fish Market that starts at 9am, smoothies are not on the menu, sashimi is. Yes, yes, it’s still healthy. But the amount one can consume when one dumps all caution in the sea, well, not healthy. Especially for my smoothie-downing partner. But hey, YOLO, right. We kicked off proceedings with a skewer of the finest Wagyu sourced from Hokkaido. It was served with a bit of Wasabi on the side. As I bit into it, the juices burst out into some kind of symphony that drowned out the babble around us. For a few minutes, everything was a blur. Just jaws chomping up and down rhythmically. We barely recovered from the experience when we were ushered into one of the teeming lanes. Kie, our guide, stopped in front of another outlet that reminded us why it’s called a fish market. We pointed out and plates of sushi, crab meat, nigiri, oysters found their way magically into our hands. Kie gave interesting bits of trivia, which we enjoyed at that moment, but now nothing comes to mind. This was basically the template of the tour – stop, eat, go, repeat. Entire mind, body and soul committed to the celebration of cuisine uncorrupted by words like fusion, experimental, Blumenthal, etc.
We ate our way through the tour in a meditative bubble punctuated at regular intervals by Kie’s insightful comments – again, no recollection. Next time, I’ll record everything. For now, relish the visual documentation.
