Non-tourist trap fish market in northeastern Japan captures our hearts with amazing sashimi

We get off the beaten path and get awesome maguro in Shiogama.

Japan has some of the greatest seafood in the world, and it feels extra special to eat extra fresh fish right at the fish market. However, we have to admit that there’s also a touristy vibe to some of the more famous ones, especially the ones in major sightseeing cities, like Tokyo’s Toyosu market.

So when he’s out and about but off the beaten tourist path, our Japanese-language reporter P.K. Sanjun likes to seek out fish markets with a bit more of an old-school vibe, and he recently found a great one in the town of Shiogama, Miyagi Prefecture.

The Shiogama Marine Products Wholesale Market is about 30 minutes by car from Sendai, and has a very local atmosphere. Functionality comes first here, with a warehouse-style interior and vendors grouped into sections with workmanlike names such as “Sales Block 10.”

Despite the “wholesale” part of its name, though, the market is open to regular individual customers too, and even has a “My Kaisendon Corner” where you can purchase bowls of rice on which to place the fresh sashimi you’ve purchased from the vendors to make your own customized kaisendon (mixed sashimi bowl).

There is, as you’d expect, a lot of fish to choose from, but P.K. learned a tip to narrow down your options: look for a vendor that has a tuna heart on display.

This isn’t a popular part of the fish to eat, but displaying a tuna heart is an indicator that the vendor cleaned and cut the tuna (or maguro, as tuna is called in Japanese) themselves right there in the market, and that it’s as fresh as can be.

This criteria is what brought P.K. to the booth of vendor Marukume Toichi Shoten, which is one of only a small number of merchants at the market who sell a special kind of tuna called Sanriku Shiogama Higashimono.

Sanriku Shiogama Higashimono are locally caught mebachi maguro (bigeye tuna) landed between September and December. On the day of P.K.’s visit, Marukume Toichi Shoten was handing out free samples, and their Higashimono was so incredibly delicious that after trying a bite P.K. decided to make it his meal. However, looking at the portions that were already packaged and for sale, P.K. could see that they were all more than he could eat by himself. Thankfully, the Marukume Toichi Shoten staff were kind enough, and had enough time on their hands, to make up a one-person pack of Higashimono sashimi for P.K. This isn’t something they’re always able to do, but P.K. had come during a little lull in the flow of customers, so they could accommodate him.

Skilfully slicing away with his knife, Marukume Toichi Shoten’s owner laid out a mouthwatering mix of akami (lean tuna) and chutoro (medium-fatty tuna) slices for P.K.

At 3,000 yen (US$20), this wasn’t a super-cheap choice, but considering both the quality and quantity of tuna, P.K. is certain he’d have had to pay a lot more to get a spread like this in a restaurant.

With his sashimi supply sorted, P.K. sauntered over to Sales Block 6, where the My Kaisendon Corner is. Here you can get a “gohan set,” consisting of a bowl of white rice and a bowl of miso soup, for 400 yen. For an extra 100 yen you can upgrade to the “photogenic (shashinbae) set,” which also gets you a leaf of shiso (Japanese basil), egg, and pickled ginger, ostensibly to add some contrasting color to really make the hues of your kaisendon pop when you snap pictures of it.

To P.K.’s surprise, it’s actually kind of tricky to arrange the slices of sashimi for a kaisendon in an aesthetically pleasing and structurally stable manner. Still, we think his final effort came out pretty good.

Eventually, P.K.’s stomach told him that it had had enough of his artistic hemming and hawing, and that it was now time to eat…and it was glorious.

Between the thick cuts and firm texture, the Sanriku Shiogama Higashimono’s mouthfeel is excellent. The fish is flavorful, rich, and moist, but without feeling soggy or waterlogged. It was all so rich, delicious, and moist that P.K. didn’t even need to use any soy sauce with it.

Truth be told, though chutoro is considered one of the prime cuts of tuna sashimi, P.K. usually isn’t that big a fan of it, so much so that he often asks for akami only when ordering sushi and sashimi. Chutoro lovers say the extra fat produces an extra buttery flavor, but to P.K.’s palate, it often feels overbearing in its oiliness. He had none of those unpleasant issues with the Sanriku Shiogama Higashimono chutoro, though. Yes, compared to the akami it’s very rich, but it still has the familiar base flavors of maguro, just dialed up in intensity.

As for the miso soup, it was tasty, but straightforward and simple, seemingly aware that it’s here in a supporting role to the real star of the show, the seafood.

Of course, if you’re not in the mood for tuna, you can make your My Kaisendon out of anything that strikes your fancy in the market.

You can also ask some vendors to grill the fish you’re buying (with prices to do so starting as low as just 200 yen), and the restaurant in Sales Block 14 can also whip you up things like fried shrimp and oysters, curry, or grilled unagi (freshwater eel).

Really, there are only two potential problems with grabbing something to eat at the Shiogama market. One is that since it’s first and foremost a wholesale market, they close early, at 1 or 2 p.m. depending on the day of the week. That can make it hard to find a place to sit in the My Kaisendon Corner during the lunch rush, so you’ll probably want to get there early in the day, like P.K. did. Second, at a lot of vendors, even the smallest portions of fish for sale are still pretty big. P.K. recommends bringing friends and getting a couple packs to share, but we think that deep down in his heart, and his stomach, he’s happy to have had an excuse to gorge himself on so much good maguro.

Location information
Shiogama Marine Products Wholesale Market / 名称　塩釜水産物仲卸市場
Address: Miyagi-ken, Shiogama-shi, Shinhamacho 1-20-74
宮城県塩竈市新浜町一丁目20番74号
Open 6 a.m.-1 p.m. (Tuesday, Thursday, Friday), 6 a.m.-2 p.m. (Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and holidays)
Individual booth hours bary by vendor
Market closed every Wednesday
Website

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