You know your sushi’s fresh when….

The fish was big, but not this big!

…you see the chef hoist a three-foot-long section of fish onto the counter, still intact! I’m talking skin, fins, tail ‘n all.

My friend and I met up for lunch at Hana Sushi, that brand-new place at the NW corner of 7th Ave and Missouri (by Sylvia’s La Canasta), and we’d just finished a boatload of sushi (as in, they brought it out on one of those ship-shaped wooden serving platters), when there was suddenly commotion at the sushi bar. That’s when we turned around and saw the chef unpack a tuna that had *just* arrived in the latest seafood shipment.

Wow — the thing was enormous! I’ve never seen something like that except in photos of the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo. And wouldn’t you know — of all days! — I didn’t have my camera on me. It would’ve been an awesome moment to capture, too. Three or four guys seated at the sushi bar were on their feet, gawking and taking cell phone pics, for several minutes. I’m still a little wound up about it.