Hokke

The fish behind Hokkaido izakaya's split, salt-grilled classic — the colder the water it grows in, the fatter it runs. Grilled, the skin crackles while the flesh flakes soft enough to drip fat, and splitting it before cooking lets the meat peel cleanly off the many bones. It peaks in autumn and winter ahead of spawning, when the fat runs especially thick.

Its watery flesh spoils fast fresh, so splitting and drying it overnight became the standard. Drying is said to draw out excess moisture and concentrate flavor, and most of the split, dried fish served at izakaya is made this way — the open cut lets fat distribute evenly right down to the bone, and also lets heat reach the flesh evenly when grilled.

Hokkaido's Pacific coast, cooled by the Oyashio current, is an environment said to help hokke pack on fat. Because it travels poorly fresh over long distances, processing it into dried, split fish near the landing port became standard practice, a way of delivering fatty fish while it's still good. It takes both cold water and fast processing together to make a good split hokke.