Fried ── Fried dishes
Gansu
breaded fried fish cake
Fish paste coated in panko and fried, a Kure, Hiroshima specialty. Said to have been devised in the postwar 1940s as a way to use leftover fish paste from kamaboko production, an unusual pairing of fried fish cake and cutlet-style crumb.
- Origin: Hiroshima Kure
- About 680 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Fish paste is shaped into a flat round and coated in panko before frying. The surface carries a crackling crumb texture while the inside stays smooth like kamaboko, releasing the fish's faint sweetness slowly as you chew. A fried fish cake wearing a crumb coating more typical of a cutlet is an unusual pairing rarely seen elsewhere.
How it's made
Fish paste is seasoned, kneaded, shaped into a flat disc, coated in panko, and deep-fried. It's said to have grown from a way of using up the scraps of fish paste left over from making kamaboko, and wearing a fritter's crumb coating while still being a fried fish cake sets it apart from other processed fish products. It's eaten as is or reheated over a flame.
Why it took this shape
One account holds that in the postwar 1940s, it was devised in Kure as a way to use leftover fish paste from kamaboko production. The name is said to combine a wish for it to blend into everyday meals with 'gansu,' a Hiroshima-dialect way of saying 'it is' — an example of a habit of not wasting scraps settling into a distinctly local food.
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 Hiroshima
- Anago MeshiConger eel, grilled kabayaki-style, is sliced and layered over rice cooked in dashi—a dish from Miyajima. It uses "Seto anago," prized for the fat that fast currents help build into the fish, and is said to have begun in 1901 as a bento sold at Miyajimaguchi station.
- AzumaSardine-like mamakari, cured in vinegar, is pressed onto seasoned okara instead of vinegared rice in this coastal sushi. It is said to have begun as a way to stretch scarce rice by substituting the cheap, plentiful soy pulp, and was served at festivals and New Year's gatherings.
- Bishu NabeChicken, gizzard, and pork are simmered with nothing more than salt, pepper, and sake in this hot pot from Saijo, one of Japan's noted brewing towns. It is said to have begun as a simple meal cooked by sake brewers between batches, seasoned lightly so as not to dull their palate for tasting.
- EbamakiRice is tossed with Hiroshima-na pickle, bonito flakes, and sesame, then rolled in toasted nori—a roll from Hiroshima's Eba district, long known for seaweed cultivation. The ends are sometimes tucked shut so it can be eaten one-handed while rowing, a food born for nori fishermen working on the water.
- Fuchu-yakiA Fuchu, Hiroshima take on okonomiyaki that swaps sliced pork belly for ground beef or pork worked right into the batter, so the meat's flavor is said to come through evenly in every bite.
- GyohanFlaked grilled white fish, egg crepe, and shrimp are arranged over rice, then doused in a broth made from the fish's own bones—a dish from Takehara, a town once wealthy on salt production. Nearly lost, it was reconstructed decades later from an old newspaper clipping after salt farming ended.