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Agonoko Umani
Agonoko umani — simmered roe from egg-bearing flying fish
The roe of egg-bearing flying fish, caught only in early summer, is simmered in stock and soy sauce as an Oki bar snack. Its large grains and dense, sticky texture are prized as a delicacy said to be scarcer even than the fish's flesh.
- Origin: Shimane Okinoshima
- About 580 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Agonoko umani simmers "agonoko," the roe of flying fish, in dashi, mirin, sake, and dark soy sauce, a simple dish and popular accompaniment to sake in the Oki islands. Compared with cod roe or salmon roe, agonoko has larger grains and a slightly firmer skin, and the eggs cling together to give the dish a sticky, dense texture.
How it's made
The roe, still in its skin, is simmered directly in dashi, mirin, sake, and dark soy sauce. For a stronger accompaniment to sake, a firmer seasoning is said to work best, and adding ginger juice or minced ginger tones down the roe's distinctive fishy edge while adding a pleasant sharpness. Marinating it in miso before grilling is another way it is traditionally prepared.
Why it took this shape
Flying fish, the prefectural fish of Shimane, migrate into local waters from mid-May onward and are said to be loved as a "fish that announces early summer." Locally, flying fish dishes were reportedly served to those who came to help with rice planting, earning the fish the nickname "rice-planting fish," and a saying held that planting couldn't proceed without it. Because agonoko can only be harvested during the flying fish's spawning season, it is said to be spoken of locally as a luxury even more precious than the fish's own flesh.
Before you go
- 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.
- At teishoku diners, shokudo, and machi-chukaA guide to the teishoku set-meal format, free rice refills, table placement, and paying at a shokudo-style diner.
Dishes in the same style
- Funa MisoCrucian carp is simmered slowly with soybeans for around five hours, then finished in a sauce of red miso and coarse sugar. A freshwater fish dish of the Kiso rivers' lower basin, made with fatty winter carp simmered until the bones soften through.
- AimazeRoot vegetables from Noto's reddish soil are cut into thin strips and simmered with fried tofu — traditionally made ahead for New Year and other special days, with the choice of vegetables shifting from village to village.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Shimane
- Akagai Garan MushiArk shell clams from Lake Nakaumi are steamed in their shells in a soy-seasoned broth, also known as akagai no kara-mushi. The name 'garan' is said to come either from a slurred 'kara' (shell) or the rattling sound made while rinsing the shells — a dish long kept for New Year's.
- Azuki ZoniRound mochi sit in azuki beans simmered with a light hand on the sugar, closer in taste to a thin zenzai than a dessert. In the Izumo area some households eat a clear zoni on New Year's Day, then switch to this one from the second.
- Bakudan OnigiriA large round rice ball is wrapped entirely in lightly toasted, soy-brushed rock nori from Oki — its bold look earning it the name 'bakudan,' or bomb. It travels well in lunch boxes and as an everyday snack.
- Dojo Kenchin JiruLoach is simmered with burdock, daikon, and shiitake in a clear soy broth in Yasugi, said to embody the old saying that one loach is worth one eel for stamina — traditionally eaten after washing the mud off from rice planting.
- Fukinoto MisoButterbur sprouts, foraged along paths and hillsides as spring's first green, are chopped and blended with white or country miso. Its bitterness and aroma make it a favorite with rice or sake, and it keeps well frozen for year-round use.