Narezushi (mainly a preserved food in which fish undergoes lactic fermentation with salt and rice), in which Sushi finds its roots, can still be found even today throughout Japan. The most famous is Funazushi (鮒寿司, 鮒鮓, 鮒寿し) in Shiga prefecture.
Although it has “sushi” in the name, according to common knowledge of the day, it would be called crucian carp. The sweet and sour smell tickles your nose and it’s almost like pickled crucian carp. When you actually put it in your mouth it fills with an intense sourness and it can only be described as a really sour pickled food. However, the more you eat it, the more you somehow get used to it and in the end it becomes a favorite food that you will even crave. This effect is so mysterious that people even wonder, “Could this have been synchronized at some point with the tastes of our Japanese ancestors?”
Making Funazushi sushi is surprisingly simple. The only ingredients are crucian carp caught in Lake Biwa, rice and salt. First the internal organs are removed from the crucian carp, next it is salted and then it is shade-dried. This crucian carp is packed tightly into freshly steamed rice in a large cask. “Sushizume” refers to this precise situation, and the ingredients are packed in so there is no air inside. If air is let in, the oxygen will cause microbiota to grow. In other words, it will rot. This is the most important thing in making funazushi.
While this cask is left for eight months to two years, special microorganisms will cultivate even without oxygen. These are lactic bacteria and acetic bacteria, which work to change the entire contents into a sour flavor.
After that, the mushy rice is removed from the finished Funazushi, and only the crucian carp is consumed. However, let me reiterate, this sour flavor is intense and complicated. Comparing it to bleu cheese or camembert cheese might make it easier to understand. The taste is so intense that it makes some people sick.
Incidentally, there are records from when Hideyoshi Toyotomi advanced his army to the Korean peninsula (around 1592), that Funazushi from Oumi was presented to soldiers on the front line as a comfort food. This episode illustrates the fact that Funazushi was a dish of pride for the people of the town of Nagahama (where Toyotomi’s castle was located, now part of Shiga prefecture).
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Revision date: June 23, 2023
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Black Tiger is in the category of the largest shrimp that is part of the Kuruma Ebi family and grows to be up to 30 cm. Black Tiger gets its name from the fact that it looks black before it is heated and has stripes like a tiger. The official name in Japan is “Ushi Ebi” but the reason is unknown. The Black Tiger is cultivated heavily in places like China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and India. It started to be imported from Taiwan in the 1980s to compensate when Japan’s shrimp consumption could no longer be covered by Kuruma Ebi. At the peak, it accounted for 40% of Japan’s shrimp imports. There is a strong impression of shrimp being imported, but small Black Tiger can actually be caught in Japan from Tokyo Bay southward.
The official name of Mirugai is “Mirukui”. The part of the Mirugai that is used as a sushi topping is the siphon that bulges out from the shell. The siphon is separated from the shell and then this is cut through longways, from top to bottom. One Mirugai can only produce four pieces of sushi. It is also nearly extinct from overfishing. While it can still be caught in the Seto Inland Sea and Mikawa Bay, there are fishing limits, which means it is an ultra-high-priced sushi topping.
Travelers’ health and safety have always been our priority and today, the focus on public health and hygiene is fundamental to the recovery of our industry.
One type of shrimp that is used for nigiri sushi when still raw is Botan ebi. Needless to say, it is an extremely new addition to the Edomae sushi topping list. Interestingly, there are two types of domestic shrimp that are called Botan ebi in the Toyosu Market.
One is called by its Japanese name, Toyama ebi, with a length of 25 cm, lives in the sea at depths of 100 to 400 m, and is normally caught in Funka Bay of Hokkaido on the Japan Sea side. It actually isn’t caught in Toyama very often despite being called Toyama ebi. At the cheapest it still costs US $20 per kilogram, and in rare cases can exceed $200 per kilogram. In the Toyosu Market, it is called “Torabotan” because of the tiger stripes on the shell (“Tora” is Japanese for tiger).
In Japanese, when a compound word is made out of two individual words, and the first consonant of the second word changes from a “clear sound” to a “fuzzy sound”, it is called “Rendaku”. For example, Edomae (江戸前) + sushi (寿司) changes to Edomaezushi (江戸前寿司). However, the correct pronunciation is only generalized among Japanese people, so in this book we chose the most commonly searched version of each compound word.
Out of the five types of Amadai that live in Japan, Aka-amadai, Shiro-amadai and Ki-amadai are the three types offered in the markets.
The main characteristics of Aka-amadai are its overall red body, the bright yellow color under the eyes and how part of its fin is a shiny cobalt blue color. Aka-amadai is called “
Shirakawa is considered to be the finest of the Amadai and can cost more than US $100 per kilogram. Aka-amadai costs around US $40 per kilogram. Shirakawa always ranks in the top three fish for market price. Shirakawa has more elasticity than the other two and has rich fat, making it perfect as sashimi or a sushi topping. The umami is so strong that even when served raw, the customer sometimes thinks it’s been prepared using kobujime. The fat between the meat and the skin is sweet and the skin is delicious in its own right, so it can even be eaten as sashimi with the skin left on. The famous production sites include Tsushima in Nagasaki Prefecture and Yawatahama in Ehime Prefecture. They are in season from autumn to winter. However, they say in a catch of 1,000 Amadai, you can only get one Shirakawa, so it is a rare item you won’t often see, even in a high-end sushi restaurant.
So, what is the true meaning of the shocking phrase, “Once you try tuna or flounder with this wasabi, you’ll never be able to eat it without wasabi again”?
Immature salmon eggs still wrapped in ovarian membrane and salted are called sujiko. Ikura is salmon roe in which each mature egg is separated from the ovarian membrane before laying the eggs and then salted or marinated in soy sauce. The ikura of Chum salmon going upstream in the Kushiro River and Tokachi River in Hokkaido From October to December are considered to be premium ikura.
In Japan, salmon roe that has been separated from the ovarian membrane and then salted is called ikura. At sushi restaurants, this is also marinated in broth that includes soy sauce, mirin and sake. This is called ikura marinated in soy sauce, or simply ikura. Worldwide, caviar is considered to be of more value than ikura. Therefore, in an attempt to improve the impression of soy sauce-marinated ikura, it is sometimes called ‘salmon caviar’. This is behavior especially seen among manufacturers selling soy sauce-marinated ikura.
Not to belabor the point, but the following is dependent on the following. In Japanese salmon is referred to as “鮭” (sake/salmon) or “鱒” (masu/trout). The characters look different, but they are part of the same family and there aren’t clear biological categories to separate them into. Incidentally, in English the type that makes their way into the sea are called “salmon,” and those that remain in freshwater their entire lives are known as, “trout.” They are all considered to be part of the salmon family. Now, foreigners who know about Japan may imagine Japanese sake (the alcoholic beverage) when they hear the word “sake” so we spell sake/salmon as “shake”, which is close to the sound pronounced by Japanese people.
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