Processed staples ── Nerimono (fish-paste products)
Datemaki
Datemaki — sweet rolled egg-and-fish cake
Datemaki is a sweet fish-and-egg roll -- paste from white fish or shrimp mixed with egg and dashi, baked, then rolled with a bamboo mat. Its name carries more than one story, and it's a New Year's osechi staple.
Lineage
What it's made of
Paste from white fish or shrimp mixed with egg yolk or beaten egg and dashi, sweetened with mirin and sugar, and baked. Its spiral cross-section, golden color, and a soft, egg-like sweetness are what define it. Folding in the fish paste is said to give it a moister, thicker bite than a plain rolled omelet.
How it's made
Paste, egg, and dashi are worked together and baked, then rolled up with a bamboo mat while still hot to set the shape. Hanpen can stand in for the paste, it's said, and while the process resembles a rolled omelet, folding in fish paste is what sets it apart from an ordinary one. How fine the bamboo mat's weave is even shows up as a pattern on the surface, giving each maker's version its own look.
Why it took this shape
Its name carries competing stories -- one traces it to "date-mono," a word for something fashionable and showy, another to it being a favorite of the warlord Date Masamune -- and which is right isn't settled. Its showy look and color are said to be why it settled into New Year's osechi cooking, with some regions using a plain rolled omelet in its place instead. Ishinomaki, Miyagi, is said to keep a local relative called "castella kamaboko," made from the same ingredients but baked flat instead of rolled.
Before you go
- How to use a convenience storeA quick guide to choosing rice balls and hot snacks, buying coffee, paying by cash, IC card, or tap payment, using the eat-in corner, and sorting your trash — the basics for a first visit.
- 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.
- Osechi and zoni for the New YearA guide to the meaning behind osechi's tiered boxes, the regional differences in zoni (square vs. round mochi, clear vs. miso broth), and the nanakusa-gayu custom.
Dishes in the same style
- Ago ChikuwaChikuwa made from the surimi of flying fish, called "ago" in Tottori. A knife through the firm grilled skin sends up a fragrant crackle, and it turns out darker than ordinary chikuwa. It's a taste of early summer, in season through the fish's spawning run from spring into summer.
- Ago-yakiAgo-yaki is Izumo noyaki made from flying-fish paste, fire-baked without a skewer. Its crackling surface and refined sweetness make it a favorite travel souvenir from Shimane.