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Kibinago no Hokaburi
Kibinago no Hokaburi — vinegared kibinago fish wrapped around a ball of seasoned tofu pulp
Small kibinago fish are butterflied, cured in vinegar, and wrapped around a ball of tofu pulp that's been pan-toasted and seasoned with vinegar — a variant of tamazushi, sushi made with pulp instead of rice. The wrapped shape is said to resemble a head wrapped in a cloth, and Sukumo City promotes it as a local specialty.
- Origin: Kochi Sukumo
- About 710 km southwest of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Okara, pressed into a small round and wrapped in a fillet of silver-stripe round herring, falls apart into soft, tender crumbs with each bite, it is said. In Kochi, okara is called otama, and it is said to have long stood in for costly rice in a dish called tamazushi. Small herring, split open along the back and cured in vinegar, are wrapped around roasted okara, and the finished shape, resembling a head wrapped in a cloth, called hokaburi, is said to be where the dish gets its name.
How it's made
The herring is split along the back and cured in vinegar. Stock is brought to a boil with salt and sugar, and okara is roasted in it, seasoned with vinegar along the way. The roasted okara is pressed into a ball and wrapped in the herring to finish. It carries a faint sweetness, and because it uses okara instead of rice, it is said to make for a lighter dish. Around Shimanto City, sardine is used in place of herring, in a version said to be called rokuyata.
Why it took this shape
Sukumo City, on Sukumo Bay, is said to have long been rich in this herring, with catches said to have topped three thousand tons around 1985. Though catches have declined since, dishes made with it are said to still be enjoyed at restaurants around the city. The fish is said to be at its best, fattest from around April to June as it approaches spawning, and the dish is said to still appear in cooking demonstrations by local keepers of traditional recipes, carried on as part of the region's food culture.
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
- 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 Kochi
- Chate no AemonoChayote, a squash-family vine native to tropical America and known locally as chate, is tossed raw into a light dressing — an autumn home dish in Kochi. A single vine can bear over a hundred fruit, so it's mostly grown for the household or shared with neighbors, and it's especially popular in the mountains where it grows easily.
- Chunichi SobaA local noodle dish from Akaoka, Kochi's Konan City, pairing Chinese noodles with udon stock. Dried baby sardines and shredded kelp are the standard toppings, said to have grown from a shortcut sparing the effort of both udon and ramen kitchens.
- Ginburo ZushiGinburo, a kidney bean grown only for home use in a district of Otoyo Town, is simmered sweet and folded into vinegared rice with root vegetables. Regarded as a bean of long life and good fortune, it's traditionally made for festivals and celebratory banquets.
- GoishichaA post-fermented tea from Otoyo, Kochi Prefecture, made through two stages of fermentation — an aerobic mold fermentation followed by a lactic acid soak. Named for its square-cut, sun-dried pieces said to resemble go stones, it carries a distinctive sweet-and-sour flavor.
- GuruniDaikon, carrot, taro, and other root vegetables are simmered together in a dashi made from dried baby sardines and soy sauce — a winter side dish. The name is said to come from "guru," Tosa dialect for a group of companions, and the dish was long made in bulk and reheated meal after meal.
- Ha Ninniku no NutaGarlic greens are chopped, ground, and mixed with miso, vinegar, sesame, and sugar — a traditional Kochi condiment said to trace back to a Korean import. It's commonly spooned over raw fish like yellowtail in place of soy sauce, and both its name and the fish it accompanies vary by area.