Grilled
Maruyaki Saba
Maruyaki saba — a whole mackerel skewered and slow-grilled over charcoal
A butterflied mackerel is threaded on bamboo skewers and slow-grilled over charcoal for about 25 minutes — a Wakasa specialty said to have begun in Ono as a treat handed out to farmers after rice planting, eaten with ginger and soy sauce.
- Origin: Fukui Ono
- About 300 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
A whole mackerel skewered from head to tail and slow-grilled over charcoal, so the skin turns crisp and fragrant while the fatty flesh underneath stays soft and flaky. Ginger and soy sauce are the standard dip in Wakasa, and each bite is said to bring out more of the fat's sweetness alongside the charcoal's smokiness. It's said to taste good cold too, and gets reworked into simmered dishes or a clear soup.
How it's made
A butterflied mackerel is re-formed into its whole shape and sewn onto a bamboo or reed skewer from head to tail, then grilled slowly over charcoal for about twenty-five minutes while watching the heat. Fresh off the grill it's eaten with ginger and soy sauce, and once seasoned it's said to be reworked into simmered mackerel or the local fish soup. How the skewer is threaded is said to affect how the skin browns.
Why it took this shape
Wakasa is said to have once supplied food to the imperial court, and its mackerel was prized enough to be walked all the way to Kyoto — a mark of how good the local catch was, which is said to have made grilling a whole fish such a lavish way to cook it. The dish is also tied to a custom of rewarding villagers after the exhausting work of rice planting, said to have taken root as a hearty treat for the season's hardest labor.
Dishes in the same style
- Abutte KamoSmall damselfish are salted overnight, then grilled whole, scales and innards left on — a bony fish often passed over elsewhere, but said to have caught on in Hakata Bay after a Meiji-era glut led someone to salt and grill the excess.
- Gohei MochiFreshly cooked non-glutinous rice is pounded, pressed flat on a skewer, and grilled with a miso glaze. Said to have originated in the mountainous Chubu region, it's traditionally made the night before a festival praying for safety in mountain work.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Related lineage
- Kashiwa MochiRice-flour dough is steamed, pounded, wrapped around sweet bean paste, and folded in an oak leaf — a rice-planting celebration sweet from Obama and Wakasa town. It is prepared for each community's 'god of the rice paddy' festival between mid-May and July, and shared with relatives.
- SabanutaFatty Wakasa mackerel is cured in vinegar, skinned, and tossed with scallion and a mustard-miso dressing in this Obama dish, locally also called 'nota' or 'dorozu' — a piquant side meant to sharpen the appetite.
Also from Fukui
- Atsuage no NitaThick fried tofu, blanched and scored with a cross cut, is simmered sweet-savory in dashi, soy sauce, and mirin with a dash of ginger juice. Fukui leads the country in fried-tofu consumption, and this dish is said to have moved from a Honkoko feast dish into everyday cooking.
- BokkakeThick fried tofu, burdock, and shirataki noodles are simmered in a bonito broth and poured hot, broth and all, over freshly cooked rice — eaten for over a century since the early 1910s. In Katsuyama it is said to take a chazuke-like turn, topped with fish cake and mitsuba.
- ChameshiRoasted soybeans are steeped in hot roasted barley tea, and rice is then cooked in that same tea — a dish from the old post town of Imajo, said to descend from Nara's 'nara-chameshi'. It is said to be indispensable at memorial services, Honkoko, and for daughters visiting home.
- Choju NamasuGround sesame is worked into a paste with miso, thick fried tofu, mustard, and vinegar, then tossed with shredded daikon, carrot, and snap peas — a New Year salad whose name literally wishes long life, also said to appear at memorial services and Honkoko.
- Decchi YokanSweet red bean paste is set with agar, sugar, and a pinch of salt into a thin, water-yokan-like winter confection. It is said to have begun when a young apprentice, home for New Year from a Kyoto shop, stretched a bar of yokan with water to share with neighbors, eaten by the kotatsu.
- Echizen Oroshi SobaA cold soba from Echizen, Fukui, topped with grated daikon and bonito flakes. It is said to originate with a soba maker a local lord brought from Kyoto to promote buckwheat as an emergency food crop.