🍱 Maguro no Kabutoyaki (Grilled head of tuna)

The Miura peninsula's Misaki Harbor is known as the preeminent harbor for tuna fishing in Japan. Grilled head of tuna is a local delicacy in Misaki: a hearty dish where, as the name suggests, an entire tuna head is grilled as-is. It originally arose from the fishermen of Misaki when they boarded their boats and set out for the open sea. They would suspend tuna heads that they could not sell at market from their ships' funnels, grilling it in covered pans before eating it. It was also enjoyed by the young fishermen as an accompaniment to drinks when they came home to port. Restaurants near Misaki Harbor are said to have begun offering grilled tuna head to the general public about 40 years ago. With the gigantic tuna head served on the table, the dish has a big impact, and is especially enjoyed by tourists. It is also attractive as an opportunity to taste rare cuts that are seldom used in more common tuna dishes, such as the cheeks and the meat inside the eye sockets. With geographical features suitable for a port, Misaki developed long ago as a location for offshore and coastal fishing, and became known nationwide in the early Showa era as a base for deep sea fishing, with a flourishing trade in tuna. Nowadays, various kinds of tuna caught all over the world are frozen at -60 C onboard fishing ships, then brought to the port before being shipped through fish markets, mainly to the Tokyo Metropolitan area. Misaki's fish markets sell between 400 and 1000 tuna a day.