As I have mentioned in my Kit Kat post, my family and I recently visited Tokyo. We are big sushi lovers, so much so in fact that the only official tour we took was of the famed Tsukiji fish market. The fish market is incredible, it is huge, smelly, dangerous (due to all the fork lifts and trucks zipping all around, not to mention the large hooks everywhere) and also encompasses a sizeable produce market. We even got to see a produce auction, which was really cool to see, but I digress.
Under that sign lies seven generations of knife making expertise.
It poured rain the whole day and the fish market is only open to tourist during certain hours. We passed the time walking past hundreds of vendors, selling all sorts of goods. Our guide kept pointing out all the different knife makers, which were cool just for the sheer size of the tuna blades they were selling, but I didn’t think much of it. I knew Japanese knives and steel were famed, but hadn’t planned on purchasing a kitchen knife that day, but the seed had been planted.
Here is my new chef’s knife….
When we got back to the room I hopped online to do a little research, which I have been known to do with any purchase no matter how trivial. I read account after account of food bloggers and chefs who had made a pilgrimage to the Tsujiki fish market to purchase their knives from the masters. So I decided to adopt a “when in Tokyo” attitude and force my family back to the market the next day to buy a knife. I figured even on the off chance the knife sucked, at least I would have a great story.
The one knife maker that seemed to keep coming up again and again was Masamoto Tsukiji. This small company has been making knives for seven generations and their only storefront remains the small stall at the Tsujiki fish market.
My wife and I each opted to buy a knife, she got a stainless steel Japanese style chef’s knife and I bought
Sharpening by hand
a carbon steel knife. My wife tends to do more of the day to day cooking and we aren’t particularly careful with our knives, so we decided to get a more forgiving stainless steel knife for her. I opted for the carbon steel for it’s ability to get a sharper edge. However, the carbon steel is more susceptible to rusting and becoming discolored if not baby’d which is a real concern here in Hawaii. I will most likely use mine only on weekends when I can be sure to clean, dry, and oil the blade. I wanted to find something that I could use for butchering ribs, but the staff made it clear their blades were for fish, not bones and my wallet was feeling a little light.
The engraving process…a little rudimentary, but the results speak for themselves.
When you buy the knives at the shop, you get to watch them hone a razor sharp edge on them with by hand on a whetstone. You also get to watch them engrave your name on the hilt by hand. It was cool to see this process that has been repeated for generations performed right in front of you. I had read a blog post where they author had regretted not buying a whetstone, so I bought one and lugged all twelve pounds of it around for an entire day. As an interesting aside, I was concerned about getting into museums and other public places with a giant knife in my backpack, turns out in Japan….that is NOT a problem.
This is our stainless steel knife
My wife’s knife has been amazing! She is very happy with it and it is in fact, very, very sharp. It also appears that it does a great job of keeping an edge. We have been a little disappointed with the stainless steel properties as her knife has discolored a bit. I have been too scared to even take my knife out of the wrapper and too busy to do much cooking these days.
The whole kit and kaboodle
Bottom Line: Spotted or not, I know now that I can’t blame any cooking shortfalls on my poor tools. I visited Mecca, bought my knives from the masters at the Tsukiji fish market, and now it is up to me to make sure my skills are as sharp as my knives.
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