A rice-bowl stand in the food court of Katsuura Fishing Port Nigiwai Market, ordered through a ticket machine. The owner bids for the fish at the morning auction. I had the "tuna wholesaler's staff-meal bowl": fresh tuna under shredded nori and green onions, finished with an egg yolk. There are seats looking out over the harbor.
7-12 Tsukiji, Nachikatsuura, Higashimuro District, Wakayama (inside Katsuura Fishing Port Nigiwai Market)
Sources: tabelog.com retty.me
This moment in the journey
A tuna bowl at the best seat on the harbor
The table facing the harbor is the best seat in the house. I poured a German non-alcoholic beer and drank the first glass with the view, which made it taste even better.
Then came the Nachikatsuura tuna bowl, made with fresh tuna. Under the shredded nori and green onions lay a generous pile of red meat. Never having been frozen, it was soft and pleasantly chewy. The recommended way is to top it with an egg yolk. Seafood bowl plus egg: that will be on the exam. The richness went up another notch.
After lunch I wandered along the harbor. Hotels stood on the cliff top and across the water, and fishing boats lined the quay. Beside the market there was a footbath, and I sat on a wooden bench for a while, looking out at the port.
Watch this scene on YouTube2:43
More notes from this journey
Nachikatsuura, Wakayama
Ochazuke with saba heshiko
Heshiko is a traditional preserved food of the Wakasa region of Fukui: gutted mackerel is salted, then packed in rice bran and left to cure for months.
From: Nachikatsuura: the sea from a fishing-village window
Nachikatsuura, Wakayama
Charcoal-grilled tuna collar
Nachikatsuura is a fishing town that boasts Japan's largest landings of fresh tuna.
From: Nachikatsuura: the sea from a fishing-village window
Nachikatsuura, Wakayama
Fresh tuna sashimi
Katsuura's fresh tuna, never frozen, has a soft, chewy texture.
From: Nachikatsuura: the sea from a fishing-village window
Nachikatsuura, Wakayama
Nachi Falls (Hiro Shrine)
One of Japan's three great waterfalls: 13 meters wide at the lip, with a 10-meter-deep basin, it drops 133 meters in a single fall.
From: Nachikatsuura: the sea from a fishing-village window
Nachikatsuura, Wakayama
Kumano Nachi Taisha and the Yatagarasu
One of the three grand shrines of Kumano, born of the worship of Nachi Falls, with a history of about 1,700 years.
From: Nachikatsuura: the sea from a fishing-village window
Nachikatsuura, Wakayama
Katsuura's fresh tuna
With the Kuroshio current flowing offshore and a deeply indented coastline, Nachikatsuura is a fishing town with Japan's largest landings of fresh tuna.
From: Nachikatsuura: the sea from a fishing-village window
More notes from Kinki
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Kyoto-style ozoni (white miso New Year soup)
Ozoni in and around Kyoto is built on kombu dashi and white miso, with round mochi, taro, carrot and daikon.
From: Making New Year's Eve soba in a Kyoto townhouse
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Osechi (datemaki, red-and-white namasu, decorated kamaboko)
Each osechi dish carries a wish.
From: Making New Year's Eve soba in a Kyoto townhouse
Kyoto City, Kyoto
Toshikoshi soba (nihachi soba)
The custom of eating soba on New Year's Eve is said to have spread among ordinary people in the Edo period.
From: Making New Year's Eve soba in a Kyoto townhouse
Aridagawa, Wakayama
Chestnut rice (kuri gohan)
My first chestnut rice, made with chestnuts I had picked myself.
From: Chestnuts, saury and an autumn feast
Aridagawa, Wakayama
Charcoal-grilled saury with sudachi
Sanma is written 秋刀魚, "autumn sword fish," but that spelling only spread from the Taisho era on; older texts wrote it 青串魚.
From: Chestnuts, saury and an autumn feast
Aridagawa, Wakayama
Wakayama bonito and mandarin carpaccio
In contrast to the lean first bonito of spring, the fish that head south from around September are called modori-gatsuo, returning bonito.
From: Chestnuts, saury and an autumn feast