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发表于 2011-1-30 23:23:09
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VOX POPULI: Thank the gods for bumper yellowtail harvest
2011/01/29
"Buri daikon," a stew of yellowtail and daikon radish, is my favorite winter dish. It takes some work to cook it right: First you have to blanch the fish so it won't smell too "fishy," and then you have to keep skimming off the scum that rise to the surface while the stew is simmering. But your labors will be amply rewarded by the rich "umami" (savoriness) the fish's head produces.
The dish goes well with plain white rice, but it's also delicious with hot sake sipped slowly. And it's good even the next day, when it becomes even more flavorful.
Sommelier Shinya Tasaki says that yellowtail goes well with red wine. For buri daikon, he recommends a wine that's relatively light but well-aged. If the fish is seasoned with sweet-and-savory teriyaki sauce, he advises, you should go with a wine with a bit of spice, perhaps with a hint of "sansho" Sichuan pepper.
A haiku by Masae Harada goes: "The joy of stewing yellowtail in winter/ Thanks to my long life."
I understand we are being blessed this year with an unprecedented bumper catch of this delectable gift from the sea. Some ports are reporting fixed-shore-net hauls that are well over 10 times the size of last year's tonnages, and the fish are being sold at half the price they fetch in an average year.
In the Toyama Prefecture port city of Himi, known for its prime yellowtail from Toyama Bay, schoolchildren are being served broiled yellowtail for lunch. I envy those kids. Before this year, unethical seafood dealers were passing off yellowtail from other regions as Himi yellowtail.
The yellowtail migrates from the Sea of Okhotsk to the waters around Taiwan. The yellowtail population is especially dense this winter in Toyama Bay and Wakasa Bay, reportedly because of a strong cold front hovering over the Sea of Japan. It appears that schools of yellowtail, migrating south in those waters to spawn, are swimming closer to the coastline this year to avoid the frigid zones.
The yellowtail has a blue-green back, a yellow stripe on its side, and its belly is silver white. As if dyed in these colors in the wintry Sea of Japan, these fish are a gorgeous sight when they glisten and wriggle in the fishnet. Some are big, weighing in at 20 kilograms or more. In the days to come, I can well imagine myself shopping around for this seasonal delicacy in the fresh seafood sections of neighborhood supermarkets.
The skies keep dumping record amounts of snow in regions along the Sea of Japan. We keep hearing sad news of homeowners trying to shovel snow on their own and injuring themselves, some fatally.
Perhaps the gods of winter are giving us this bumper yellowtail catch this year to make up for the out-of-control weather.
While sympathizing with the people in snowbound regions, I thank the four seasons and the four seas for this bounty. I wonder what I'll make for supper tonight that will go well with yellowtail.
--The Asahi Shimbun, Jan. 28 |
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