Processed staples ── Nerimono (fish-paste products)
Itawasa
Itawasa — sliced kamaboko with wasabi
Itawasa is board-mounted kamaboko sliced thick like sashimi and served with wasabi and soy sauce -- a way of eating that's said to have settled in as a soba shop's classic drinking snack.
Lineage
What it's made of
Board-mounted kamaboko sliced a touch thicker than sashimi, served with nothing more than wasabi and soy sauce. It's meant to let the paste's bounce and faint sweetness come through as they are, and some hold that going easy on the soy sauce draws out the flavor best. Cutting it thick is said to be what lets the kamaboko's own bite come through.
How it's made
A good-quality kamaboko is chosen, sliced thick with a sashimi knife, plated, and served with wasabi and soy sauce -- nothing more. Some shops add a decorative cut or two, it's said. How much wasabi goes on, and how the soy sauce is applied, are said to carry each shop's own small conventions.
Why it took this shape
The name is said to combine "ita-kamaboko" (board kamaboko) and "wasabi." Some soba shops are said to serve nothing more elaborate than itawasa and a few other simple dishes alongside their noodles, and it looks to have settled in as a drinking snack within Edo's soba-shop culture. Kamaboko is said to carry a well-balanced set of amino acids, which some hold makes it an easy dish to pair with a drink.
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.
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.