fish market – Check Please!

Food at Nishiki market in Kyoto

Nishiki market is a popular shopping street in Kyoto with numerous street food vendors. Like Kuromon in Osaka or the markets in Sapporo, it is a super-touristy destination.

The visit

I entered the market from the Teramachi entrance on one side.

Deep-fried “stuff” was very popular.

There was a lot of fresh seafood.

There were the baby octopus with a quail egg inside also found in Kuromon in Osaka.

A very popular vendor was selling fresh sashimi at reasonable prices and I could not resist.

I had my tuna fix (both normal tuna and medium-fatty tuna).

Something easy to eat were these skewers with large shrimps grilled on the spot.

I tried a couple of scallops that were quite meaty.

I would NOT fancy this burger.

Above the famous sparrow skewers. I did not try them. The quail looked good though.

The famous ayu (sweet fish) on skewer was available.

These Japanese croquettes are quite good and inexpensive.

There was a shop selling kakigori (with seats), but it stopped at around 5pm to become a regular restaurant.

Not only seafood, also vegetables and even non-food was available and some locals actually shopped there.

The check

The snacks I had were pretty inexpensive, just a few hundred yen each. The sashimi was around 1,000 yen. I found it more affordable than Kuromon in Osaka (and it is true in general for Kyoto as compared to Osaka). The only problem was the big crowd and it was an afternoon during the week, away from lunch hours. Do not expect a comfortbale place where to eat if you go.

Where in Kyoto:
609 Nishidaimonjicho, Nakagyo Ward.
(It is located on a road one block north and parallel to Shijō Street and west of Teramachi Street.)

Eating at Kuromon market in Osaka

Kuromon market is a popular market in central Osaka. It is a super-touristy destination and can is unbelievably crowded most of the times. I do not recommend it, but here’s some of the street food you can find. The pictures were taken in August 2017.

The visit

I got to the market from Nipponbashi station, from there it is a very short walk.

Lots of people. And it was not even too crowded in the picture above.

Many sellers display food and can cook it on the spot. Seafood is the main attraction.

A popular snack is the baby octopus with a quail egg inside on a stick. I had one and was ok. Just do not try to eat it all at once if you do not want to choke.

Sea urchin and oysters, also big oysters, are everywhere (but expensive). I had an oyster.

Grilled squid was another common snack.

In a stall I had a grilled squid and some scallops.

You will also find several stalls serving oden.

Oden is an inexpensive snack. I guess this was better than the one you can have in a convenience shop.

They also sell and cook wagyu beef. Not sure who would spend an arm and leg in wagyu and eat it walking in a crowded market. Go to a decent restaurant!

A crab stick was another easy snack.

Another stall selling grilled seafood above.

And here’s a stall specializing in horumon cuisine (using organ meat, giblets, and other types of offal meat especially from the cow).

One popular store in the market is Maguroya Noragin specializing in fresh tuna. I tried it and I was left unimpressed. You can see the pictures of what I had in the gallery below.

The check

I did not get any check, but I can tell you that it was not cheap. Many simple dishes would cost around 10 USD (1,000 yen). Soon I found myself spending more than 50 USD for just a few snacks. I had the impression that all the food was fresh and I trusted the hygiene. But I would not recommend it. With a similar budget you can have a meal in a decent restaurant.

Where in Osaka:
2 Chome-4-1 Nipponbashi, Chuo Ward.

Mistakes to avoid if you plan to eat at Noryangjin fish market

Noryangjin fish market (or Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market) in Seoul recently seems to have been put on the map by foodies youtubers like Mark Wiens and Luke Martin. I decided to test it. This review is illustrative of the situation in July 2019.

The visit

Getting to Noryangjin may seem super easy as there is a metro station with the same name. WRONG! Yes, you have to get to Noryangjin station, then you might be tempted to cross the rail tracks using the pedestrian overpass pictured above. That does not work anymore.

As the pictures above show, if you take the overpass, you will end on the rooftop of the old market building where at the time of posting some vendors are still barricaded. Avoid this way for your own safety (the main problem is the trash everywhere).

Rather, go to street level and follow the track until you will encounter an underpass (above the entrance from the market) with signage indicating the market.

The first floor and part of the second floor are of course packed with vendors.

Octopus, crabs, lobsters, prawns, you name it… are on display.

Sashimi is available everywhere. I am just not sure about the freshness of the pre-assembled set of sashimi. I went during a weekday and there was really little business going on with retail buyers like me.

Eventually I bought a couple of inexpensive items from a vendor to test the restaurant system. One was the sea pineapple pictured above. Then I added some wild prawns.

Then the vendor matched me with her preferred restaurant (on the second floor). The restaurants will clean and cook the fish for you and will provide you with a comfortable environment for your feast.

They like to display messages signed by happy customers.

My prawns were quickly grilled and were very good.

The sea pineapple had a weird flavor. I left it.

I shall also mention that on the second floor there were a couple of full-fledged restaurants, but they did not seem to be particularly interesting.

The check

I spent 14,000 WON for the seafood and 13,000 WON for the cooking (see check above): around 22 USD. The cooking fee did not seem right. I have the impression they overcharged me and I have the following advice for you:

Take pictures of what you wish to eat.
Go to a restaurant or two to get a quotation for the cooking service before buying anything.
Buy what you need and go to your selected restaurant.

If I go back, I would definitely avoid the restaurants indicated by the seafood vendor. It is clear that there is collusion and part of what you pay to the restaurant goes back to the vendors’ pocket as a commission.

Where in Seoul:
674 Nodeul-ro, Noryangjin-dong, Dongjak-gu.

Seafood adventure at Donggang Huaqiao Fish Market in Taiwan

Did you know that Taiwan is one of the major sources of tuna in Asia? And the epicenter of the tuna trade is Donggang, a township in the Southern part of Taiwan. As soon as I learnt it I knew I had to visit its fish market. In December 2018 I ventured for the first time in the
Huaqiao Fish Market that has a large retail area ready to welcome visitors hungry for sashimi.

The visit

I got to Donggang with a public bus from Kaohsiung stopping at Pingtung Bus Station then I walked one kilometer to the fish market located next to the ferry terminal. It is also possible to find a shuttle that will leave you at the ferry terminal next to the market (more about transportation at the end of the page). Also, no need to wake up early, as this retail market opens at 11am…

The market is quite large with both sellers of any type of seafood and kiosks catering to visitors selling fresh sashimi. Here and there you can find stools and counters where to seat.

My first stop was at stall 186 where I had a lovely sashimi set with tuna, salmon, yellow tail and another type of sashimi. All for 200 NTD (6.5 USD). The sashimi was cut fresh on the spot.

Second stop at stall 118 for another sashimi set with yellow tail, salmon and tuna. This time they handed me the box with the pre-cut pieces of sashimi. Still fresh though.

At stall 227, for 400 NTD (13 USD) I had four slices of the prized kama-toro: marbled tuna collar. This cut is very rare (it accounts for only 1% of the tuna mass) and it is regarded as a delicacy. It is marbled like o-toro, but more compact. They also threw three pieces of regular tuna included in the price.

Many stalls have a piece of kama-toro on display ready to be cut.

Also had a piece of the fish cake pictured above.

At one extremity of the market there is a small restaurant (menu only in Chinese). In this restaurant I tried one of the local specialties, the flying fish roe sausage. This is really just a sausage sprinkled with flying fish roe. I won’t need to eat another one.

Finally, all over the market there are stalls selling a kind of flavored jelly. They are available in many flavors and one strip costs only 10 NTD (0.32 USD). A good way to cap the meal!

The check

Prices are quite standardized. Sashimi sets cost from 100 to 200 NTD (3.2 to 6.5 USD). The most expensive cut is of course the marbled tuna collar that goes for 100 NTD for slice. By comparison, this is easily between 1 fourth to 1 eight of what you would spend for the same amount of sashimi in a Japanese restaurant in Japan or Mainland China. The feast cost me less than 1000 NTD (33 USD).

These are wholesome market prices! I have never eaten sashimi so fresh and cheap. Needless to say, I highly recommend the detour. I will be back.

Appendix: how to get there

From Kaohsiung you can get a shuttle to the ferry terminal next to the market for 150 NTD. Do not bother buying the return ticket as it is more practical to book another shuttle while in Donggang, there are many hovering in front of the ferry terminal and their normal fare to Kaohsiung is again 150 NTD.

In front of Kaohsiung main station (not the HSR station) there is a vendor of tickets for such a shuttle inside a bike shop at the South-East corner of Zhongnan and Jianguo roads. Here’s a ticket showing the shuttle times:

However, for some reason on the day of my trip the shuttle was not running… so I just moved twenty meters ahead to a bus station for a ticket on the regular 9127A bus. It was a very smooth 45 minute ride. My stop was the Pingtunt bus station in downtown Donggang. From there I walked to my destination.

Getting addicted to Addiction Aquatic Development in Taipei

Forgetting for a moment the weird English name, Addiction Aquatic Development (上引水產) in Taipei is a must-see both for foodies and urban planners… they did a fantastic job in turning an old fish market into a multi-function space including a standing sushi bar, an oyster bar, a couple of restaurants, a supermarket and much more. The seafood is fresh and the prices are good. It is really easy to get addicted.

The visit

I visited (again) multiple times the place in late December 2018.

The space is located in North Taipei, unfortunately it is not close to any metro stop, so taxi is the best choice to arrive. Taxis usually station in front of the main entrance pictured above.

Inside, the first area is dedicated to aquaculture with large tanks full of lobsters, giant crabs and so on…

Then you step in a relatively small supermarket area stocked with fresh sushi and sashimi to go. The products are very reasonably priced.

The rest of the main indoor area is dominated by a standing sushi bar and other smaller eating areas (including an oyster bar and a cooked food station).

Above a sashimi platter (with the addiction of 3 pieces of medium fatty tuna and 5 pieces of regular tuna) that I had in the standing sushi bar.

In a station you can have fresh lobster sashimi. The cook will cut the live lobster in front of you and they will also give you a lobster soup with all the left overs. In the pictures a 200gram lobster (quite small).

The four pictures above show more seafood that I bought from the supermarket area and I consumed outside. The sushi was very good and I could even find a big portion of cod roe and mullet roe (a Taiwan specialty, very salty, but to try).

They also have a full-fledged restaurant called Trésors de la mer where bookings are possible. In the restaurant I had their mega seafood platter and a miso soup. Some fruit was complimentary. Otherwise, it is possible to pick the fish from a market display and they will prepare you according to your instructions.

The seafood platter included tuna, yellow tail, salmon, sea snails, oysters, scallops, salmon roe, and a piece of abalone. Everything was delicious. The only thing disappointing was the miso soup, but who cares!

The last picture above shows a view of another seating area, a grilled seafood restaurant that I did not try.

The check(s)

The supermarket food cost me 1304 NTD (42 USD), the big ticket time was the lobster sashimi (644 NTD before tax). The sushi was just a few dollars.

The bill for the huge seafood platter at the restaurant Trésors de la mer was 1595 NTD (52 USD) including a miso soup and a coke. This was really a dish for two people.

The sashimi platter from the standing sushi restaurant was 913 NTD (29.6 USD) and it was a lot of sashimi.

Overall, prices are very reasonable for a funky location. The only caveat is to avoid peak hours on weekends or holidays, unless you like to queue like this people on New Year’s Eve (2018):

Where in Taipei:
No. 18, Alley 2, Lane 410, Minzu E Rd, Zhongshan District, Taipei City.
Name in Chinese: 上引水產.
Address in Chinese: 台北市民族東路410巷2弄18號.
Website: http://www.addiction.com.tw

Eating at the two major fish markets in Sapporo

Sapporo has two major fish markets that are open to tourists: the Nijo Fish Market and the Central Wholesale Market. In both markets restaurants where to have fresh seafood, especially donburi, abound.

Central Wholesale Market

The stores of the Central Wholesale Market occupy the two sides of a street in the North-Western part of the city. I got there by taxi (not the cheaper way), otherwise it is a 10-15 walk from the nearest metro station.

The stores are one another’s copy… they have an area where they sell seafood and usually have a section for the restaurant. I checked in in a restaurant located in the building pictured above at the very start (or end?) of the street. It was called Kita No Ryouba that had a nice air-conditioned section for non smokers.

The piece of resistance of my meal was a donburi with tuna and fatty tuna. I enjoyed it.

I also had a grilled squid hat was very good.

The donburi cost me 2,480 yen before tax (around 22 USD). The total check, including a drink, the squid, and taxes, was 3,623 yen (32 USD). Not wholesale prices, but elsewhere in Asia the same amount of fatty tuna would have cost much more.

The Nijo Fish Market

The Nijo Fish Market occupies two blocks in downtown Sapporo. It is very easy to reach from Odori metro station and a favorite among tourists.

I had lunch at Donbori Chaya Nijo Fish Market.

I had fatty tuna again!

Then I had a miso soup that was particularly rich:

Finally, I had two grilled scallops:

The restaurant was tourist-friendly with payment systems catering to Chinese customers and exhibiting a halal notice.

Total check: 2,780 yen (around 25 USD). The fatty tuna was particularly well priced.

The verdict

Fish markets are a must-go attraction in Japan. The two Sapporo markets that I visited were a bit disappointing. Hokkaido is the seafood hot spot of Japan and I was expecting something more (in terms of variety and possibility to get fresh seafood on the go).

The Central Wholesale Market is not worth the trip. If back, I might visit Nijo Fish Market again since it is so conveniently located and fatty tuna seems to be so reasonably priced.