Welcome to another episode of Chopstick Travel,
I'm Luke Martin, and today it's Episode 3 of our Tokyo, Japan series.
Here in Japan, all kinds of seafood are available,
everything from what you would consider normal seafood,
to the most bizarre, exotic, and strange seafoods that you've never seen before.
For today's episode, we're partnering with local Japanese tour company Tokyo byFood,
to bring you a special Japanese seafood video.
They've hooked us up with a local chef, who's going to prepare
one of the strangest seafood meals that we will probably ever have.
I know I'm going to be tasting a lot of things I've never tasted before,
but I really don't know much more than that.
This is the restaurant behind me here, so let's go in.
So I'm here with the Chef Hirata-san,
he is running this restaurant here called Tsudokko,
and he's going to be preparing us all kinds of different, strange Japanese seafood.
We're gonna go in the kitchen and start cooking. Okay. Okay.
So here we have our first fish of the day, this is a Japanese flathead fish.
This is a prized fish here in Japan, really expensive,
and they're in season from spring to summer,
and this is really really slimy. We're gonna prepare it into two different ways,
one, sashimi, and then the other sautéed.
I've definitely never had a fish like this before.
So the chef just finished carving up the flathead – Japanese flathead fish.
This is a nice white fish and we have the first of a couple dishes,
and that is the sashimi,
so very thinly cut strips of raw Japanese flathead fish,
a little bit of soy sauce and – let's try this.
Really soft.
Very soft. The flesh is delicate almost – almost like
a lobster or something, and then slightly sweet.
Yeah, it's very fresh tasting. It's quite nice.
So here we have something a little different, this is actually been sautéed,
and breaded, and fried up in butter,
and it looks really good and it smells really good as well.
So nice big chunks of it.
Let me grab a piece here.
Oh, that's great. Big flavor of butter on that.
A little bit salty, I think it tastes of pepper too.
And to chase everything down we have some Sake,
this one is from Shizuoka, which is south of Tokyo.
Just – kanpai.
SABRINA: That's nice. LUKE: That's good.
The chef just surprised us with a dish, and it's two different things actually
The fish stomach, and the fish egg pouch,
and we're gonna try the stomach first.
Luke: So it's kind of like little rings. Sabrina: Looks like he cut it up.
Very chewy.
I actually like the texture that it's kind of like when you eat octopus.
Next up is the egg pouch, let's try this.
Interesting texture.
Luke: Actually, this flavour is not as strong as I had thought,
it's quite salty on the outside.
The texture is almost like liver, very soft.
So our next seafood are these – Iwagaki oysters.
They're absolutely huge. This one is literally almost the size of my head.
They're quite heavy too. And these are only available for, in the summertime.
So we've got two massive ones,
and I think we're just going to eat these raw as well.
So we'll let the chef prepare them.
So our oysters have been prepared, you can see these are absolutely massive,
definitely the biggest ones I've ever seen,
and we actually had to get the chef to cut them into pieces for us,
because there's no way that we could take these in one shot.
So we've got a couple sauces. I'm gonna dip in this ponzu sauce that's on the table here.
Look at these nice big juicy chunks. Let's try it.
For some, that might be kind of a strong seafood flavour,
but I think that is absolutely perfect, still very fresh,
very cold, and very, very chewy.
And then with that ponzu sauce, it's almost like a citrusy saltiness,
that goes along nicely with that ocean flavour.
Definitely not the strangest thing I've ever eaten,
but I've never seen one this big. Very, very unique.
So this is our third fish of the day, may look normal,
but check this out here. This is a flying fish.
So these guys use these almost like, wing – wings.
But they're actually fins to jump out of the water,
and this is a delicacy here in Japan.
We're having one of these prepared sashimi,
and then the other prepared grilled,
so should be interesting.
Really beautiful looking fish.
The chef has taken the egg pouch out of the flying fish,
and he said that it's really good to eat raw,
so he's made a little – spoonful for me to try,
and I'm right in the kitchen. So this is as fresh as it gets.
It's quite chewy, and it's not salty at all actually,
this is actually a lot different than any other eggs, I've tried, but really good.
Our flying fish has been prepared. You can see we've got the sashimi here.
It has this beautiful red –
very deep red colour – strip on the outside,
and then the flesh is actually kind of a light pink.
Sabrina: Firm texture, but light in flavour. Luke: Firm.
Not much flavour. Actually, the flathead fish we had earlier
had more flavour than this.
And the texture was softer in that flathead fish as well.
So our second flying fish has been prepared grilled,
so you can see, it's actually kind of like, baked in the oven I should say.
And there is just a ton of salt on top of this thing.
This is completely different.
Luke: And those wings are kinda falling apart. Sabrina: It's kinda crumbling.
So let me break into this guy here.
Let me tear a piece off the side of this fish – Wow.
There's a lot of meat under there. Whoa.
There is a ton of meat under there.
That looks really good. And it's steaming hot.
I'm gonna go for a dip in the soy sauce.
Oh man, that smells incredible. Let's try it out.
That really brings out the flavour after being baked.
With the sashimi, you couldn't really taste too much
But now you can taste the natural sweetness of the fish,
and a little bit smoky and definitely salty
It's such a cool, unique looking fish.
Check this thing out. There's little wings right here.
Oh, they're crispy.
Now we have something that is super bizarre. This is called Shirako,
which is milt, and that is actually a sperm sac.
So this is coming from the flying fish, which normally it doesn't come as.
But yeah, this chef recommended it, so let's try it.
We've actually dressed it up with some ponzu sauce and also –
Luke: Green – green onions, so... Sabrina: Yeah.
I don't know how good this is gonna be. It's definitely a little bit bizarre.
Cheers...
Sabrina: Kind of creamy. Luke: Yeah, very creamy.
The green onions are overpowering.
Luke: There's a slight bitterness but it's really creamy. Sabrina: Yeah.
It's almost like eating, like a worm, or something.
Or like a little bit of brain actually.
Yeah, the same kind of consistency and texture.
Sabrina: That one's a little bit bizarre. Luke: Yeah, not my favourite, but
not as bad as I thought either.
So finally, we are at our fourth seafood,
and this one has probably got to be the strangest, in my opinion.
This is the sea pineapple. So this is a type of sea squirt.
They'll be attached to the bottom like this, and they're –
circulating the ocean water through their body,
so I've heard that it tastes very much like the ocean.
I guess – I'm not exactly sure why they would call it sea pineapple,
it's orange, a yellow sort of colour, like a pineapple,
and you can see the two valves at the top here.
It is, like, really hard, like,
rubbery hard on the outside.
Down here I can barely even squeeze it, it's rock solid.
So I think we're just eating this one raw as well, so...
Luke: This shall be interesting. Sabrina: Yeah.
We heard many things like, it's not good.
Yeah, we heard that it's not very good. So, we'll see for ourselves, I guess.
Our final food of the day, this is the sea pineapple,
no idea why this is called sea pineapple,
if you guys know is – it because of the outside? Is it because of the inside?
I don't know. Let me know down in the comment box if you know,
but I have heard nothing but bad things about this,
so it should be interesting. We're gonna go and try it.
We've got a little bit of vinegar on the side.
It's just raw, kind of sashimi,
and it's got this weird kind of yellow-orange colour to it.
Honestly, it looks really nice, but I don't know how it's gonna taste.
Yeah, I'm just gonna go for a tiny dip in the vinegar.
Alright, cheers. This may be one of the weirdest things I think we've ever eaten.
Luke: Oh... Oh... Sabrina: Oh...
Luke: It's getting worse. Sabrina: It's getting bitter.
It started off okay...
It's actually a lot softer than I thought.
It's almost like – got the texture
of like a really ripe fruit actually.
And the flavour is really unique, almost like...
Luke: Iodine, or like, chemical-y. Sabrina: Yeah...
Luke: And a little bitter. Sabrina: a little bitter at the very end,
kind of like an aftertaste, but texture-wise, really nice.
Taste-wise, not so nice, but –
interesting, not too bad.
There's one of the staff members here that says she –
does not like this at all, so we're gonna invite her to come try it on camera.
All right, so you – have you eaten this before?
Woman: Mm-hm. Luke: You have. You liked it?
Woman: No...
Do you like it? Do you like it?
Sabrina: Ehh, it's okay... Luke: It's okay.
Here, you help us finish it.
Woman: Together. Luke: Together, yeah.
Woman: Small piece... Luke: Small piece?
Woman: *speaking Japanese* Luke. Too big?
Sabrina: She's trying to find for a small piece.
And, vinegar?
Woman: I'll – I'll have ponzu... Luke & Sabrina: Ponzu.
So yeah, ponzu is another thing we can dip it in.
Luke: Just a little dip. Okay. Woman: Okay...
Luke: Kanpai. Sabrina and Woman: Kanpai.
Sabrina: She's out. Not good.
Everyone: Bye-bye!
Luke: Arigato gozaimasu.
Alright, that was an interesting video to say the least.
My stomach is filled with all sorts of strange seafoods right now.
Yeah, that was certainly interesting,
but strange doesn't always mean that it's going to be bad, a lot of those were quite delicious.
Yes, so if you didn't check out the previous episode, you can hit the link down in the description box.
We showed you the famous Shinjuku Tuna demolition.
It was incredible, but thank you once again to byFood.
You could check them out at byfood.com if you're looking to book a tour here in Japan.
They're all across the islands, so hit the link down in the description box,
and book your own Japanese food tour with byfood.com.
Thank you to them. Thank you to everyone at the restaurant. It was an incredible day.
Thank you to Lisa for trying the sea pineapples with us.
And we will see you on another episode of Chopstick Travel very soon.
Both: Bye-bye.