Fried ── Fried dishes
Fugu no Karaage
Fugu no karaage — deep-fried pufferfish, a homely counterpart to fugu sashimi
Pufferfish, marinated in soy sauce and sake, is coated in potato starch and deep-fried—a homely dish from the Shimonoseki and Hagi areas. While pricier tiger pufferfish goes into sashimi and hot pot, the more affordable shirosabafugu species is the one most often fried this way.
- Origin: Yamaguchi
- About 830 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Pufferfish, marinated in soy sauce, sake, and salt, is coated in wheat flour or potato starch and deep-fried in this homely dish from the Shimonoseki and Hagi area. The contrast between the crisp coating and the pufferfish's soft flesh is the draw, and while pricier tiger pufferfish goes into sashimi and hot pot, the more affordable shirosabafugu species is the one most often fried this way. Hagi also lands mafugu, prized for its distinctive chewy texture and sweetness, so the species used can vary by area.
How it's made
Prepared shirosabafugu fillets are marinated in soy sauce, sake, and salt, drained well, then coated in wheat flour or potato starch. They are quickly deep-fried in hot oil, drained thoroughly, and plated once cooked through. Because certain organs of the fish carry toxins depending on the species, using fillets already prepared by a licensed chef is taken as a given. Pre-processed products meant simply for frying at home are also sold.
Why it took this shape
With good fishing grounds nearby and a long history of eating pufferfish, Yamaguchi is said to have refined the skill of removing toxic parts with precision. While the pricier tiger pufferfish is reserved for sashimi and hot pot, the more affordable shirosabafugu is considered well suited to frying, and the two appear to have settled into distinct roles for everyday meals at home and at izakaya. As a form easier to handle than sashimi, it has taken root as a familiar dish on home tables.
Before you go
Dishes in the same style
- Agemaki Yuba no NimonoFresh yuba sheets are layered, rolled into a log, sliced into rounds, and deep-fried before a slow simmer in a light broth — a Nikko dish built on the region's rippled yuba-making craft, served at New Year's and celebrations.
- Aji FryFilleted horse mackerel breaded in panko and fried. Chiba prefecture holds some of the richest mackerel fishing grounds in Japan, and frying is thought to have taken root as a quick way to eat regional brands like the oily 'golden aji' fresh.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Yamaguchi
- Chikin Chikin GoboBite-size fried chicken and deep-fried burdock are tossed in a sweet soy glaze in this dish, born in Yamaguchi's school lunches. A nutrition teacher is said to have devised it around 1995 from recipes submitted by families, and its catchy, rhythmic name helped it spread into a statewide favorite.
- Chisha NamasuKakichisha, an heirloom crinkled lettuce grown around Shimonoseki, is torn by hand and tossed with vinegared miso, flaked grilled fish, or whitebait. It is said to have been devised by the Mori domain's people after being impoverished by the Battle of Sekigahara, and is also known as "chishamomi."
- Choshu KurokashiwaSaid to draw on the blood of Kurokashiwa, a natural-monument fowl native to Yamaguchi and Shimane, developed into a jidori by a Yamaguchi research station and finished and named by a poultry farm; reportedly free-ranged for 80–100 days.
- GobomakiLizardfish skin, a byproduct of making fish cakes, is wrapped around a skewer of burdock root and grilled with a basting sauce—a dish from Hagi. Because it uses lizardfish, prized for the region's grilled fish cakes, seafood processors often make the two together, and it is a fixture of festival and cherry-blossom bento.
- Gube JiruGube—small limpets, two to three centimeters across, gathered from rocky shores and breakwaters—are simmered into both the stock and the filling of this miso soup. It comes from Mishima, an island about 45 kilometers off Hagi's coast, where it was eaten not only by fishing families but by farming households near the shore.