Hey everyone, hope you're having an amazing day! It's Mark Wiens I'm in the beautiful island of Okinawa in the very south of Japan and today we are going to the Makishi Public Market which is one of the greatest Disneyland of exotic and colorful Seafood Everything from fish to giant green turban shells to giant rainbow lobsters and slipper lobsters. Massive, gigantic. We're gonna see the colorful assortment The Catch of the Day. They'll slice it up right in front of you, make sashimi and you can eat it on spot.

We're going to do a combination of both we're gonna have Sashimi we're gonna cook a couple dishes, we're gonna get an assortment of seafood and I'm gonna share everything. All of the Japanese Okinawan Seafood coming up for you right now in this video we are going into Makishi Market This is one of Okinawa's central Paradise of seafood where you'll find all of the fresh daily catch and it's one of the oldest markets. It was in an old building which they're renovating now, so right now it's in a temporary location but still all the same. Seafood vendors and all the same Seafood is available here.

I Think there's a main entrance there. Would you like to go there? or we can come in here and then maybe we can see that later. Only today we'll be hanging out with my local friend Yujisan who's going to help us navigate this. Seafood Paradise Just walking through the market.

the seafood abundance here is unbelievable. The amount of ingredients, the quality, the variety, and it's such a unique blend of seafood. So many different, colorful, extremely colorful fish. And it's not only Seafood pork is extremely famous in Okinawa people eat a lot of pork, a lot of beef along with seafood along with the impressive and exotic Seafood that's a rockfish.

The lobsters are massive. The shells are like alienesque looking. They have huge crabs, giant puffer fish, and giant slipper lobsters. Those are by far the biggest slipper lobsters I've ever seen.

Um so there's probably 20 or so vendors with entire aquariums of seafood. Uh, but this lady. She's really nice to us and she was really showing us her collection of seafood and so we've chosen to come buy our Seafood from here. Foreign with the salt.

Very simple salted bread. so for a complete meal she's recommending three different types of seafood. Yes, Margaret's coming up. Wow, It's a tough decision but we've decided on this is a like a group or a local fish and we're going to do half of it sashimi and then half of it.

She recommended just a very simple kind of maybe salt steamed preparation. We're getting this gigantic turban alien shell and we'll get this half sashimi and then half cooked in butter and garlic. Thing we've got is a slipper. Lobster When she said this is in season look, it has actually purple purple claws.

Definitely has like a prehistoric look to his tail. This is a real hard decision to shopping here. There's such a selection and it all is ultra fresh. So you have a we get a fish we get uh, the slipper? Lobster Yes and then a giant shell or crabs or I mean even in Japan This is a totally different selection of seafood that you'll find here.

What's incredible here is that you buy it fresh or live and then they slice it up right here. or they cook it in the kitchen upstairs and you can eat upstairs. But the Highlight I think the the centerpiece for lunch is going to be this massive gigantic slipper. Lobster He's about to slice everything up fresh, prepare the sashimi, and then also divvy things out or divide things up to the other dishes as well.

So we're gonna see the process next. Just sliced up the fish. Uh, then he kept the head and half of the fillet, half the body for the that's going to be cooked. but then one filet is going to be all sashimi.

Uncle Makes extremely fast work with the knife and he moves on to the Shell giant shell. He just plucks that out immediately. kind of like you can hear the sounds of it, kind of squishing and squeezing and it's kind of like two or three parts to that shell. There's that one base part and then there's kind of the tail that goes into the shell.

Look at that meat just bulging up. Oh, it looks transparent, the color is so fresh. water. and our total price for everything that we got all three things came to 31 680.

But really, the big ticket items: Slipper Lobster or now everything is cleaned and prepped. We're moving over to the other chopping board where he's going to slice everything uh, cleanly into bite-sized pieces for sashimi and then also build an entire like Sashimi boat. All the decorations, the shells, the heads, um, all of the edible meat, always slicing everything up so perfectly with such an extremely sharp knife expertise. That tail section is for sashimi and this section will be for garlic garlic butter.

so this will go to the kitchen to be cooked, a part of the shell for garlic butter and then the fish for perfect with salt. Wasabi And then I think I mean we'll be eating the Sashimi first and then after that they'll be making some soup with the head of that slipper. Lobster A little goodbye to the to the colorful assortment of fish. On our way out, the Sashimi platter is ready.

We're going upstairs to cook the rest of the dishes and to eat. There's probably a dozen or so different restaurants that you can choose from, but typically your Seafood vendor who you bought the seafood from they're friends with a particular restaurant, so you typically then go upstairs to eat at that restaurant, which makes it very convenient. You don't really need to choose and I think they're pretty much all the same probably The Taste is very similar as well. Thank you Yuji for taking us here and for navigating this Market with us.

Okay, let's go man oh man I Cannot wait. It's as fresh as possible and served on a Japanese Sashimi boat. All three of the different Seafoods the trio the trio of seafood yeah, the grape seaweed which I think is also very common in Okinawa oh man it's like look at the the texture of it almost transparent. you could tell how sweet and melting that is.

just pure soy sauce. yeah um it's like so silky muscular because that that tail of the lobster is kind of like a big muscle flap. it really like claps and flaps. you know it's really muscular but crunchy and yeah isn't it so good.

And this is like a type of grouper I believe dissolves in your mouth, so clean tasting, almost custardy in your mouth. Wow that is quality. and then the the lobster slipper lobster head goes into the kitchen. he's gonna make a soup with the head but we have all this actually meat to eat and then the other cooked dishes as well that have just arrived to the table.

and then finally we have the giant green turban shell. just very thin slices, almost looks like a like a scallop. Okay thank you guys. a little bit of a crunch to it but it's soft like soft at the same time.

Yeah it has more crunch than a scallop, but it kind of has the same silky texture as a scallop, just less like a little more like dense. It gets more and more sweet as you keep on chewing. Wow, that is extraordinary. Actually that is really really good.

You might think that the shell has a very strong Seafood taster. Like a pungent taste. it's actually very neutral tasting. It's a massive snail from the sea.

It's a head-sized snail from the sea. so this is fresh out of the kitchen. I Think we should try this next. This is the cooked other side of the fish with the head.

Looks like it's steamed. maybe steamed with ginger and that smells incredible, right? Wow. Oh that just kind of bounced back. Oh I love how look at the meatiness of it.

Oh man. entire piece of fish. I'm sure cooked perfectly. It's so aromatic with the ginger, green onions and that skin, that bright red skin my name is got melt in your mouth.

No flavor is overpowering, it's just a little bit of soy sauce or or salt. plus the aroma. The ginger and green onion delicious. And then it's incredible how the texture changes when it's raw.

it's more of a custardy, slightly chewy texture. When it's cooked, it just kind of completely melts in your mouth. This is the green turban shell, but this one is sauteed with garlic and butter. Mmm that's more crunchy like a cartilagey texture.

Oh yeah, what do you think YouTube So nice. I actually never tasted it before. Oh this is so nice. I think what's great about this Supermarket is too.

They really recommended trying half and half. that way you never get like not too much sashimia not too much of the garlic butter. It's like a totally different seafood, almost between cooked and raw. Oh wow.

The Miso soup made with that head simmered down thank you very much. All right, that smells delicious. And what a way to use the head for a soup so that it boils so that all the head juices come out. All that flavor is released from the shell into the broth as well.

Oh I'm hot. Oh oh so good. The nuttiness, the the complexity of the Miso along with that flavor of the lobster. So good, so comforting, so hot.

And I think when it's cooked as well I got some bits of the cooked lobster as well. Really sweet, really moist and juicy. Okay I'm going in for another bite of that slipper Lobster and this time I'm going to dip a little bit into the into the wasabi. It's like the more you chew that it's just like lobster ice cream in your mouth, the sweet silky strandiness of it and as opposed to a regular Lobster or a more common Like a Rock Lobster or uh, one of the rainbow lobsters I think this might be even sweeter.

Perhaps it's even silkier in texture I mean that's it. That is why she recommended. She said it's the best seafood you can buy. and then the sea grapes to something that's very common and very common in Okinawa as well.

The sea grapes texture is really good and it has a kind of a sliminess to it when you bite down and then it releases that flavor of the seed into your mouth. That was a fantastic Seafood meal again relying on the freshness of the seafood from downstairs. but then even the cooking preparations was was great. And you do pay a fee to sit down and to get the extra dishes, but it's well worth it.

This was just an absolutely incredible a sensational a Disneyland like adventure of a seafood experience in Okinawa and the vendors. Everyone at the at the market has been so friendly helpful. The quality, the freshness, the locality of the seafood that you get here is unparalleled. I mean it's an island.

it's blessed by the Seas an abundance of local fresh seafood. But not only that, but it's like really unique Seafood that you won't find in other places. It's really a classic Market dates back to the 1950s and it has a lot of history to it and hopefully in the future they'll be back at the original location and have renovated the location as well. But highly recommended when you're in Naha in Okinawa It's an absolute must! and I Love I mean any kind of situation where you're able to choose the fresh seafood and then have it prepared right in front of you and then eat upstairs.

The freshness cannot get fresher. and I Want to say also a big thank you to my friend Yuji who showed us around who brought us here and helped us navigate the market. Thank you so much! Yuji So that's going to wrap it up I Want to say a big thank you for watching? Please remember to give this video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it. Leave a comment below I'd love to hear from you and if you're not already subscribed, make sure you subscribe now for lots more food and travel videos.

Thanks again for watching goodbye from Okinawa and I will see you on the next video.