"Jet Lag" Breakfast

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Originally uploaded by me-spirit.

For many, fish and breakfast don't usually go together, but again, since my motherland is an island, it doesn't strike me as odd. Daing or smoked bangus with garlic fried rice is a breakfast I might crave.

Gina-san, my sensei no Nihongo (Japanese teacher) as well as Greg (my friend Vivian's husband) each recommended Tsukiji Market and sushi breakfast at the top of their "Tokyo must-do lists". Gina calls it the "Jet Lag" breakfast because the early morning visit to Tsukiji is easier accomplished when you're freshly jet-lagged.

After the Fish Market, we split into two camps for the sushi breakfast: half went for grilled unagi, the rest,for tuna and uni. The restaurant was like a sushi diner - long and narrow with seats only at the counter. At 8:00am, most seats were taken and we had to wait! There was a picture menu, so ordering was not an issue. The place was steamy with the aroma of good rice; I can't describe it, but I could just tell it was good rice. Our chirashi sushi orders (Monica - maguro and uni; Norv - maguro and Fumiko-san - uni) came soon after we sat down. The fish was incredibly fresh and was like buttah, baby! I've never tried uni until now (the texture was just hard to get over) but this uni was sweet and tender. My bowl was overflowing with super-sized pieces of toro and maguro and a lovely piece of shiso to prettily hold the wasabi and later serve as a palate cleanser. As a reference, the cost of toro nigiri (2 pieces) and sashimi run $9 and $18 respectively back in California. Six fat pieces of toro and another 6 pieces of maguro set me back 1500 yen or roughly $13. And I may not get another piece as fresh or torokeru (melt in your mouth) again.