Originally Posted by
cockpitvisit
In the EU, all fish used for sushi must be deep frozen per official regulations, in order to kill off any worms etc. living in the fish. I understand frozen fish is widely used for making sushi in Japan too.
So what kind of fish is actually used at the popular sushi places at the Tsukiji market? Is it basically the same frozen fish every other place is using? Then what's the point of eating it at Tsukiji, paying almost 2x the usual price? Or is it indeed fresh fish, and you have a risk of being infected with worms after eating sushi there?
I'm not an expert on this and I've never gone to the early morning fish auction at Tsukiji. However, at least on TV, I always see frozen maguros laid out on the floor. Not sure if they freeze certain fish and not the others, but most maguros (it's most commonly eaten raw in Jpn) seem to be pre-frozen... even the ones at Tsukiji just based on TV.
I'm not sure if you'll find the best answers on this forum. A lot of stuff comes up if you google. For instance:
http://www.chowhound.com/post/frozen-maguro-854698