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Utsubo Ryouri
Utsubo Ryouri — moray eel dried, fried, and simmered into a soy glaze
The moray eel — called the "gangster of the sea" for its sharp teeth — is butterflied and sun-dried in autumn and winter in southern Wakayama, then fried and coated in a sweet soy glaze. The mild white flesh also goes into hot pots, sashimi, and fried preparations.
- Origin: Wakayama
- About 460 km southwest of Tokyo
What it's made of
Utsubo, or moray eel, has a fearsome appearance that earns it the nickname "gangster of the sea," and it is eaten in only a handful of regions, southern Wakayama among them. Its translucent white flesh has a pleasant springiness and a clean, mild flavor, and the gelatin between the skin and meat is rich in collagen. A simmered, deep-fried preserve made from dried moray eel is the area's best-known product, alongside sashimi, seared tataki, hot pot, and deep-fried preparations.
How it's made
Because moray eel has many small bones and is difficult to fillet, it is rarely prepared at home and more often sold as a processed product. The classic tsukudani preserve is made by deep-frying the eel until crisp, then tossing it quickly in a thickened glaze of soy sauce, sugar, and mirin. Eel caught in the cold months from November to March carries more fat and less of its natural odor, and drying it before cooking concentrates the flavor further. Rows of split, drying eel hung out in autumn and winter are a familiar sight across the southern coast.
Why it took this shape
Wakayama developed a habit of drying moray eel before eating it, and the sight of split eels drying in the autumn and winter catch season is said to be a familiar scene of the southern region. Because the fish is bony and time-consuming to prepare, home cooking with it is said to have declined in favor of processed products and restaurant dishes. Its mild white flesh pairs well with many cooking styles, which is thought to be part of why preparations from tsukudani to sashimi have taken hold.
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.
- How to shop in a depachika (department store food hall)A guide to browsing prepared foods and bento, choosing wagashi as a gift with a good shelf life, sampling etiquette, end-of-day discounts, asking for cold packs and wrapping, and finding your way around a depachika floor.
- Enjoying a bussanten (regional products fair)A guide to what's sold at a bussanten (regional products fair), how to find one, when it gets crowded, shelf life and taking food home, and how to fit one around a trip.
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 Wakayama
- BouriA whole, unpeeled parent taro is simmered over two days for this New Year's dish from the Ayukawa area of Tanabe City's Ото̄ district. One account holds that villagers gave up pounding mochi for six hundred years to atone for once turning away a fleeing prince, eating this in its place.
- Goma ToufuRaw sesame is skinned, ground, and worked with mountain water and Yoshino arrowroot into a simmered block of shojin cuisine. Said to have supplied protein for monks who abstained from meat and fish, it's now a familiar Koyasan souvenir and a fixture on Japanese menus.
- Gonpachi no Abura ItameGonbachi, formally known as itadori knotweed, is blanched, peeled, and quickly stir-fried in oil for this spring dish. Thick, well-grown stalks that snap with a crisp pop are prized for a crunchy bite and a faint sourness.
- Hatagonbo ZushiA stout, round burdock called hatagonbo, grown on the steep red-clay slopes of Hashimoto City's Nishihata district, is sliced into rounds, hollowed at the center, and packed with vinegared rice. Cultivation had nearly died out until a local cooperative revived it around 2013, roughly seventy years on.
- Igami no NitsukeIgami — what southern Wakayama calls the parrotfish — is simmered whole in a sweet-salty broth. Feeding on seaweed among winter rocks leaves it free of any off-flavor, and around Tanabe it's said to be served head-to-tail in place of sea bream for New Year's.
- Inoko MochiNon-glutinous and sticky rice are cooked with taro, mashed, and shaped into balls coated with lightly salted sweet red bean paste. Offered to the harvest god on the Day of the Boar in the old tenth lunar month, it's also made for autumn festivals in parts of southern Wakayama.