Otoro Sushi (Fatty Bluefin Tuna)
OH-toh-roh — 'O' is an honorific meaning 'great'; 'toro' refers to the fatty belly cut of tuna — together, roughly 'the great fatty cut.'
₹900
The most expensive bite of fish in the world — a single prized tuna has sold for over a million dollars at auction.
Otoro comes from the fattiest part of the bluefin tuna belly, and its status as a luxury delicacy is a relatively modern shift — for most of Japanese history it was considered too fatty and often discarded, favored only after refrigeration and shifting tastes made rich, fatty cuts desirable in the 20th century. Tokyo's tuna auctions, formerly at Tsukiji and now at Toyosu, have since turned a single prized fish into headline news nearly every New Year.
What makes it taste like that
The fat content is so high that otoro often doesn't need soy sauce at all — it can taste almost buttery, melting on contact rather than requiring much chewing. A cut just slightly warmed to room temperature, never cold from the fridge, is what lets that fat actually soften and release flavor.
Chef's note
Skip the soy sauce on the first piece — the fat itself is the seasoning.