600-Pound Bluefin Tuna For Kome Sushi Restaurantff

Source: Le High Valley Live

 
At noon today, Thursday, executive chef Shuji Hiyakawa and his sushi assistants will break down a 600-pound bluefin tuna at Kome, in The Promenade Shops at Saucon Valley.

The event, which is not open to the public, will kick off Tuna Weekend, a celebration of the prized ingredient. The fish is worth an estimated $10,000 and is rare not only for its size, but for its flavor, a spokesman said.

“It comes down to the fact that it’s fattier,” said publicist Scott Stein. “It’s not like the fat on a piece of meat that you want to cut off. In tuna the fat is marbleized and makes for a creamier, buttery tasting fish.”

Kome and sister restaurant Ooka, with three locations in Philadelphia and one in Riverside, Calif., welcomed a 400-pound bluefin tuna Jan. 28. Stein said the tuna only lasted three days, but was enjoyed by at least 8,000 customers throughout the five restaurants.

The 600-pound tuna, which is farm-raised and caught off the coast of Spain in the Mediterranean, may be one of the last caught this year. A UN Wildlife committee rejected a proposed ban on the trade of giant bluefin tuna last month. The U.S. government supported the ban.

“The fish we’re doing is farm-raised, raised to be consumed,” Stein said. “We’re not taking fish out of their natural habitat.”

Peter Breslow, spokesman for Kome, said this tuna was purchased after the ban was declined.

“We would never use a product that society deemed extinct,” Breslow said. “As soon as this became a hot topic we shifted to farm-raised tuna. There’s no issue depleting a species because these fish are raised for the sake of eating.”

The restaurant will open to the public 5 p.m. Thursday with the following specials:

•         $20 bluefin sushi or sashimi tasting, including one piece of Hon-Maguro (Japanese for bluefin), one piece of Chu-Toro (medium fatty belly tuna), one piece of O-Toro (fatty belly tuna) and a toro and scallion roll.

•       $25 bluefin tuna loin steak with soup, house salad, noodles and dessert.

 
Chef Shuji Hiyakawa cuts into a 400-pound bluefin tuna earlier this year