(tranquil music) - I'm finding myself the longer I stay in Tokyo, the more I love it, the more I love the people and obviously the more I love the food.

(tranquil music) - Chicken eggs.

(guitar strumming) - Funabashi region of Tokyo Bay.

We went to Daisan Fish Market, that is run by Ogawa-san.

He generously allowed us to tour his operation where he operates seven boats that go out daily.

(upbeat music) - You can see the freshness in the eyes, they were so clear, and the gills, so bright red.

- There was kohada, which is fish that I'm familiar with from sushi bars in Hawaii.

Suzuki.

Fugu, the infamous blow fish.

Much of his fish went to Tsukiji Fish Market, but there's also the opportunity for local chefs to come to his shop every morning and pick fish for their menus.

- Ogawa-san would say any chef worth his salt in Japan, knows his fish.

What's your favorite restaurant in Tokyo?

(speaking foreign language) - Sanbanze.

- Sanbanze.

(upbeat music) - We walked through alleyways and if you didn't know it, you'd pass right by it.

And we found a little gem.

- Sanbanze is run by a husband and wife duo, Kenji-san and Miho-san.

He had actually ridden his bike down to the docks, when we were down there in the morning and asked Ogawa-san what we were looking at.

So we had just sashimi, pretty much everything he prepared for us was uncooked.

(upbeat music) The suzuki, we serve that with a ponzu.

It's not a fatty fish.

It has this kind of chewy bite to it, a texture.

The big kohana is actually called Konoshiro.

He served that two ways.

He did a tataki, where he chopped it up, mixed it with some nagi, fresh grated wasabi and shoyu and then he had it in little strips, that we just dipped in in ginger and shoyu.

- When you have that kind of quality, that kind of freshness, actually the job of the chef or the cook is to step aside and let the ingredients speak for itself.

- [Ed] All of these fish he had paired with a certain sake.

- [Woman] Could you like one more?

- Of course.

(woman laughing) - Yes.

(all laughing) (upbeat music) - [Ed] Back at home, we thought we should probably do the same thing and visit the fish options in Honolulu.

(upbeat music) - [Ed] It is the only auction like this in the United States.

It's run by a character, just a giving man, named Brooks Takenaka.

His grandfather was a long line fisherman.

His uncle was a long line fisherman.

So he's extremely knowledgeable and intimate with the oceans, currents, the seasons, what it provides, the economics behind being a fisherman.

(upbeat guitar music) - There was auctioneering going on.

That actually gave me the opportunity to bid on a fish.

Quite honestly, I have no clue what was going on.

There was an auctioneer, they were speaking a foreign language.

(imitating foreign language) (speaking foreign language) - Per capita consumption wise, we consume almost three times more than the rest of the nation.

- Yeah, right.

- Yeah.

Our fleet represents less than 3% of the total take of the Pacific.

- Right.

- And less than 3% of our product ends up on foreign soil.

So it's primarily a domestic market, local, as well as the mainland.

- Okay.

(tranquil music) - For me, it was invaluable to be there because, we're known for snout to tail, nose to tail, and seeing these fish, these hordes of fish that are taken from our oceans, it makes me realize that we have a responsibility to use everything.

It was a life that was sitting in front of you.

(techno music) These boats that actually go out for weeks on end, their primary goal is to get tuna or ahi.

But in the process, they end up pulling in other fish.

These are the fish that are in our restaurant, that we really like to make use of.

There's monchong, there's opah, there's a whole bunch of gill fish, different marlin species.

The fish that we were fortunate enough to bid on is known as shutome, or boardbill swordfish.

Hawaiian name is Au Ku.

It is flaky, it is white, moist, and it's incredibly forgiving.

(upbeat music) So we brought that fish back and cooked it three ways.

Because we really wanted to taste it, so we didn't marinate it or anything, we just used salt and pepper, olive oil.

Hey!

How is it?

How are you?

We invited Melissa Chang here, who's probably the most highly regarded food travel blogger in Honolulu.

And we've pan roasted it with lots of butter and garlic.

We grilled it just like you would at home on a barbecue, and we mangrove smoked some, and that really was kind of an afterthought when we were at the option block.

Brooks mentioned to me that this fish is really good smoked.

So, what we do at the restaurant is we take these little discs of mangrove wood.

It's an invasive plant, and it really destroys kind of the natural estuaries.

We found that if you cut it into little thin planks, similar to like cedar plank salmon, put a piece of fish on it and cover it.

It really, in parts, it would this lovely, kind of billowy soft smoke flavor.

(techno music) Next we just go like this and go, (Ed and Melissa laughing) (upbeat music) This is not something you would get at the restaurant.

We wouldn't end up - It's a lot of food.

- Giving you a pound of fish on your plate.

But, it's really so we get to taste of them all together.

- Oh, very nice.

(percussive music) Mm.

- You know, it's firm.

- Mhm.

- And steaky, but still very moist.

- It's very delicate, like me.

(both laughing) Why do you laugh?

- You grew up over here.

- Yes.

- Where?

- Oblipiha.

- Oh really?

- Yeah (laughing).

My parents were poor and so, they grew up eating processed foods 'cause it's fast, it's cheap, and it's readily available.

One day, my dad got cuckoo fresh corn from the farm, and he's like, wow, this is good.

So after that, he banned supermarket corn and just, snowballed into other ingredients that he would find from the farm.

It was like, okay that's it, we're gonna ban that ingredient, that ingredient, and started eating more local stuff at home.

- That's probably shaped who you are because all of your videos and your columns and your blogs are about the virtues of eating local.

- I try.

My parents are foodies and they didn't know it.

Just at the time they were like, wow, this tastes good.

We're going to eat that.

- Imagine that.

(upbeat music)