Most of us love fish as it’s healthy and easy to get hold of, but the love for fish reached a new level earlier this month in Tokyo. The Japanese are a particular lover of fish as their national delicacy of sushi is eaten by Japanese people and fish lovers around the world. Bluefin Tuna is some of the rarest fish around and comes at a premium if you want to sample this as part of your sushi. 80% of the Bluefin market ends up in Japan as their the biggest consumers of this beautiful fish. Here today we take a look at the world’s most expensive edible fish sale:
Kiyoshi Kimura became the lucky owner of a 269 Kilogram specimen of the fish at an auction recently setting a new world record. He paid a whopping 56.54 million Yen for the ownership right, and this was a new world record for the sale of a single edible fish.
Kimura is a successful restaurateur in Japan and owns a chain of successful sushi restaurants. This record has generated a lot of PR around the purchase and he also now has a huge fish that he can turn into tasty and fresh sushi. A fish of this size can produce a whopping 10,000 pieces, so there is plenty to go around for restaurant dining or takeaway.
The purchase was somewhat symbolic and does not represent the actual going prices for fish in the country. It was a stand for recovery after problems such as the Tsunami and Kimura did it to ‘liven things up’. He said businesses need to remain strong in these weak times and this is exactly the point he wanted to prove to spend this much money on a single fish.
He wanted the fish to stay in Japan rather than go overseas and plans to serve it across Japan at his restaurants. Each piece of sushi will have to sell for more than 6,000 Yen to break even but this is no concern for the owner who believes the fish will sell because of its history and what it represents for Japan. He owns 46 restaurants so there will surely be a queue of hungry sushi lovers waiting to sample the delicacy.
You can of course find sushi all over the world which has become extremely trendy to eat over the last ten years. You can also try sashimi which is plain pieces of fish marinated in a light soya sauce and vinegar dressing. This is served raw and fresh. Alternatively, nigiri combines the flesh with a spoon full of rice for something a little more substantial.
Have the fish combined with other ingredients in popular ‘California rolls’ or have the flesh seared in the crust of chili and sesame seeds for a hot treat.
