The love of seafood has deep roots in Japan, and it can be interesting to trace these back in history. Where fish are concerned, long before tuna was king, Japanese sought out tai.
Although there are more than 200 species of fish that take the name tai in Japan, most of which belong to the sea bream family, only one bears the name madai, meaning "true tai."
This is the red sea bream (Pagrus major), historically the most prized fish in the country. The tai family in general and the madai in particular have been eaten in Japan for at least 5,000 years, as archaeological excavations of prehistoric sites have revealed.