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Okiagari
Okiagari — raw sakura shrimp simmered with tofu and scallion, sukiyaki-style
Raw sakura shrimp is simmered sukiyaki-style with tofu and scallion in soy sauce and sugar. Sakura shrimp are landed only in Suruga Bay, and the dish is said to have begun as something fishermen in Yui ate over drinks after coming ashore from the day's catch.
- Origin: Shizuoka Shizuoka (Yui, Shimizu Ward)
- About 140 km southwest of Tokyo
What it's made of
Okiagari is a hot-pot dish from the Yui district, made by simmering raw sakura shrimp with tofu and scallion in a sukiyaki-style broth of soy sauce, sugar, and sake. Sakura shrimp are landed only in Suruga Bay, and within it only at Yui port in Shizuoka city and Oi River port in Yaizu. The dish is said to have started as a drinking snack fishermen ate after coming back from a day's shrimp haul, reflecting on the day's work.
How it's made
Soy sauce, sugar, and sake are heated in a shallow pot, and once it comes to a boil, sakura shrimp and large-cut tofu are added and simmered over medium heat until the flavor soaks in. Scallion cut into roughly 4-centimeter lengths is stirred in just before the heat is turned off, and the pot is brought back to a brief boil. When using frozen shrimp, thawing them naturally is reportedly recommended.
Why it took this shape
Sakura shrimp fishing is said to have begun in 1894, after shrimp were caught by chance in nets set for horse mackerel. To protect the stock, the fishing season is limited to two short periods a year, and okiagari is said to have started as something Yui fishermen ate as a drinking snack while looking back on the day's catch after coming ashore. The custom of fishermen eating it themselves has reportedly faded, but the dish is said to live on as a home-cooked meal.
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 Shizuoka
- Abekawa MochiFresh-pounded rice cake is dusted in soybean flour mixed with sugar. Named for the Abe River, it's said to have been famous among Tokaido travelers as a teahouse specialty and to appear in the travel novel Tokaidochu Hizakurige.
- BokumeshiSteamed eel and shaved burdock are simmered together and folded into freshly cooked rice. Its name is said to trace to oversized eels unfit for sale, used in staff meals at eel farms along the Oi River — a mixed rice dish of the region.
- Fuji KinkaBred by Shizuoka Prefecture by crossing its own Duroc line, Fujirock, with Jinhua, a rare breed from China's Zhejiang province — found only in Shizuoka. Said to combine Jinhua's tenderness with Fujirock's marbling.
- Fujieda Asa RamenA town that eats ramen at breakfast — often a hot bowl followed by a cold one.
- Fujinomiya YakisobaIt grew up as a postwar snack at Fujinomiya's candy shops and okonomiyaki stalls. Its identity rests on three local staples: chewy steamed noodles, pork-lard cracklings called nikukasu, and a sardine-powder topping called dashiko.
- GawaRaw bonito is minced and mixed into a chilled miso broth with cucumber, pickled plum, and shiso. Its name is said to come from the "gawa-gawa" sound of stirring miso into ice water aboard a fishing boat — originally a summer meal made at sea.