July 8, 2010
We made it to the fish market! We arrived a little later than we had wanted (5a instead of 4:30a) as we were delayed trying to make our way through trucks, motorized trollies and scooters as we wound through the market. The market is the size of 10 Los Angeles Central Markets. The tuna auction is only open to the public from 5a-6:30a, so we had to be there early. It was worth it! In the huge refrigerated room were hundreds of tuna, each probably weighing 200 pounds. Pallets of 10-12 tuna were auctioned off by men jumping up on boxes left and right who called out bids as they “danced” (according to David) and rang their bells. The tuna on the pallets had small chunks cut out of the tail areas which were placed on the fish so prospective buyers could evaluate their quality. On another table, thin slices of a darker red tuna were laid out where buyers used flashlights to examine them before bidding. To us it looked like chaos, but it was somehow a very precise and organized process that has been going on for years.
After the auction, we wandered around the other parts of the fish market and saw all sort of sea creatures - all kinds of crabs, clams, oysters and eels. Many of the fish sellers there go back several generations. We heard that some marriages had even been arranged to improve business!
To reward ourselves for being up early, we went to one of the sushi bars in the market (the one with the biggest line) and treated ourselves to a fabulous sushi breakfast. The tuna, of course was delicious, the abalone not so much, and the surprise was the Spanish mackerel. The sushi chef was impressed with Emma and David who chowed down 4-5 tuna rolls. We couldn’t believe we’d already had a full day by 9am!!
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