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Fukumen
Fukumen — flaked white fish over konjac noodles, colored to mark the four seasons
Flaked white fish, simmered sweet and salty, is worked into thin-cut strands of konjac styled like noodles — a festival dish from Uwajima. The colors are said to stand for the seasons, pink for spring through white for winter, and it's served at weddings and longevity celebrations.
- Origin: Ehime Uwajima
- About 710 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
White fish crumbles are heaped so thickly over strands of konjac that they seem to cover it completely, and the scallion and mandarin peel scattered on top are said to represent the four seasons in miniature. The dish is said to have been passed down as a ceremonial food of the Uwajima domain, and its name has several explanations — that konjac, called yamafuku locally and cut into noodle-thin strands, gave rise to fukumen, or that piling the crumbles over the konjac like a mask (fukumen) gave the dish its name — though which account is correct remains unsettled.
How it's made
White fish is boiled, wrapped in cloth, and squeezed firmly to remove moisture. It is flaked, deboned, and simmered in a pan with sugar and sake, with food coloring added if a tinted crumble is wanted. Shirataki-style konjac noodles are cut to size, boiled, drained, and dry-fried in a pan, then simmered with stock and seasoning until the liquid is gone. The fish crumble is worked over the konjac, mounded onto a plate, and finished with scallion and mandarin peel.
Why it took this shape
Konjac is said to have yielded a reliable harvest even during Edo-period famines, which is said to be why its cultivation spread as a way of securing food. Topping the konjac with colorful crumbles to represent the four seasons is said to lie behind the dish's role as festive fare. Around Uwajima, celebrations are said to call for sawachi platters shared among guests, and this dish is said to have held a central place among them, served at wedding banquets and longevity celebrations alike.
Before you go
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Dishes in the same style
- Agonoko UmaniThe 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.
- 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.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Ehime
- Bote ChaRoasted tea is whisked to a froth with a salted bamboo whisk and poured over black-bean rice with toppings like bamboo shoot — a dish from Matsuyama. Said to have been devised by a domain lord's household during a period of enforced frugality, it's still served at a temple's springtime Buddha festival.
- EbitenSmall shrimp are ground shell and all, worked with white fish and tofu, and fried into a cake — a fish-paste product from eastern Ehime. The salt is kept light to let the tofu's sweetness and the shrimp's aroma come through, with the ground shell left in for a gritty bite.
- Igisu DofuIgisu seaweed and raw soybean flour are simmered into stock and chilled firm like agar, a dish from Imabari. Its cool texture is meant to coax back a summer appetite, and households differ over whether to fold in shrimp or leave it plain.
- SatsumaGrilled fish is flaked and worked into barley miso, thinned with a stock from its own bones, and ladled over hot barley rice — a dish of southern Ehime. Said to have started as a fisherman's trick for making dry barley rice easier to eat, with the fish varying by area and household.
- Tai SomenA whole sea bream is simmered and set on a large platter of boiled somen noodles, the cooking broth doubling as a dipping sauce. The noodles are linked to the Tanabata weaver-star legend and the fish to good fortune, and the dish has long been served to family at weddings and milestone birthdays.
- TaimeshiEastern Ehime cooks a whole sea bream into the rice pot; the south instead lays raw fillets marinated in egg and soy over hot rice. Considered an auspicious fish, it appears at celebrations too, and which style a household follows tends to run by region.