Home-style ── Gohan no otomo (rice companions)
Sujiko
Sujiko — salted salmon roe skein
Salmon roe salted with the membrane still holding the eggs together, unlike ikura's loose beads. The stronger salt and the bound texture are said to be what tells it apart from ikura.
Lineage
What it's made of
Sujiko is salmon roe, salted with the membrane still holding the eggs together. Because the eggs aren't worked apart, it doesn't come as separate beads the way ikura does — instead it holds together as a bound mass. Salted plain, its saltiness is more pronounced, and the roe's rich flavor comes through directly.
How it's made
Fresh salmon roe skein is handled carefully so the membrane doesn't tear, then cured in brine or with salt worked directly into it. Skipping the step of separating the eggs makes it, relatively speaking, less labor to produce. It's sliced and served on rice, or later worked apart and reprocessed into ikura, depending on what it's needed for.
Why it took this shape
Records from the Heian period are said to already show salmon roe eaten as a processed salmon product, and an Edo-period text is said to describe salted roe kept as a preserve. At the time, there's said to have been no word distinguishing the bound skein from loose eggs; separating the roe into individual beads is said to have only spread from the Taisho era on — and sujiko is said to preserve the earlier form, from before that split.
Before you go
- How to use a convenience storeA quick guide to choosing rice balls and hot snacks, buying coffee, paying by cash, IC card, or tap payment, using the eat-in corner, and sorting your trash — the basics for a first visit.
- How to shop at a supermarketHow to choose prepared foods, sashimi, and packaged sushi, when discount stickers tend to appear, region-only specialties, buying by weight, the checkout and bagging flow, and sampling etiquette at a local supermarket.
- Food for Obon and the harvest moon (tsukimi)A guide to the meat-free shojin ryori and somen served at Obon, and the tsukimi dango offered on the night of the harvest moon.
Dishes in the same style
- Ajitsuke NoriSheet nori brushed with a soy-and-sugar seasoning and toasted crisp, said to have been devised as a gift for an imperial visit to Kyoto in the Meiji era. Its snap gives way to a burst of flavor and aroma.
- Chirimen JakoYoung sardine fry, boiled in salted water and sun-dried, with the name shifting according to how far the drying goes. Western Japan tends to call it chirimen-jako, eastern Japan shirasu-boshi.