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Kuchizoko no Nitsuke
Kuchizoko no nitsuke — sole from the Ariake Sea simmered in a seasoned broth
Sole from the Ariake Sea, called 'kuchizoko' for its flat, shoe-sole shape, is simmered sweet and salty in soy and sake — the darker-skinned variety said to have firmer flesh and fetch a higher price.
- Origin: Saga
- About 920 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Sole caught in the Ariake Sea is locally known as kuchizoko in Saga, its leaf-shaped body and indistinct dorsal and tail fins setting it apart from other flatfish. It's most often simmered in a generous, mildly sweet and savory seasoning liquid. It's a close relative of flounder, with both eyes set on the left side of its body. The Ariake Sea is said to be home to many other creatures found nowhere else too.
How it's made
The scaled sole is simmered in a broth of boiled soy sauce, sake, and mirin, with vegetables added to simmer through. A mildly sweet, savory seasoning is considered the standard, and a smaller variety of the fish is said to be deep-fried whole, bones and all. The flesh is said to come off the bone easily, making it simple to prepare. A smaller variety of the fish is said to be deep-fried whole, bones and all. It's also said to have been used in cooking for infants and young children.
Why it took this shape
The Ariake Sea, known for a vast tidal flat, is said to be home to this fish along with other creatures particular to the region. Because the flesh comes off the bone easily, it's also said to have been used in cooking for infants and young children. The dark-skinned variety in particular is said to carry an especially rich flavor, favored by locals. Different varieties come into season at different times, so it's available year-round. It's said to have long been cherished locally as an everyday side dish.
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 Saga
- Ara no SugataniA grouper weighing ten kilos or more is simmered whole in a giant pot over the better part of a day — the showpiece of the hospitality dishes women prepare for guests during the Karatsu-kunchi festival, said to have started as a postwar display of one-upmanship.
- FunankoguiCrucian carp, wrapped whole in kelp, simmers for hours with daikon and other roots until even the bones turn soft — a winter protein source from the lean season on the Ariake Sea, and in Kashima, an offering to the god of good fortune at New Year.
- Futsu MochiPounded mochi is worked through with boiled mugwort and wrapped around sweet bean paste — where much of Japan offers diamond-shaped rice cakes at the Doll Festival, parts of Saga offer this mugwort mochi instead, and it doubles as a snack marking spring's arrival.
- Go DofuSoy milk is set not with nigari but kudzu starch, giving this Arita specialty a softer, glossier bite than ordinary tofu — served with sesame-soy as a side, or with black sugar syrup and soybean flour as a dessert.
- Hoshigaki NamasuJulienned daikon and dried persimmon are tossed with vinegar, yuzu juice, and soy — from Saga's Matsubai district, where curtains of drying persimmons hanging under the eaves mark the fall, and this dish is said to appear alongside New Year's osechi.
- Ika no KakeaeSquid, daikon, and carrot are tossed in a vinegared miso dressing thick with ground sesame — a style of dish found across Japan, but called 'kakeae' in Saga, where fatty mackerel sometimes stands in for squid at autumn festivals.