Nanban-zuke

Small fish, dusted in flour, are fried and then steeped in a sweet vinegar of vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, and chili pepper. The just-fried crumb turns soft as it soaks up the vinegar, and the longer it sits, the easier the bones become to eat. Served chilled, the tartness stands out even more, making it a dish that goes down easily even in hot weather.

Small fish such as juvenile horse mackerel are prepped, dusted in flour, fried, and steeped while still hot in a marinade of vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, dashi, chili pepper, onion, and carrot for thirty minutes or more. In an age before refrigeration, frying the fish and then curing it in vinegar is said to have been a way of preserving it.

In fishing villages with fresh catch close at hand, fish were cooked without waste — fried, then cured in vinegar to keep. Before refrigeration existed, this pairing of frying's heat with vinegar's preservation is said to have taken hold wherever fishing thrived, and it survives today as a local dish handed down in coastal regions across the country.