Raw
Hoya Sunomono
Hoya sunomono — sea squirt dressed in vinegar
Fresh sea squirt, shucked straight from the shell, is dressed in vinegar with cucumber, myoga ginger, and shiso — a briny early-summer dish from the ria coast of Sanriku, where Miyagi is said to account for four-fifths of Japan's farmed output.
- Origin: Miyagi
- About 340 km northeast of Tokyo
What it's made of
A Sanriku coastal dish of sea squirt, shelled and cleaned, cut into bite-sized pieces and dressed with cucumber and salt in a two-part vinegar sauce. Nicknamed the "ocean's pineapple," it is said to carry all five basic tastes, sweet, sour, salty, umami and bitter, at once. Because it loses freshness quickly and can turn strong-smelling, it is usually served as a vinegared dish; wild-caught sea squirt is said to have an especially fine flavor.
How it's made
Sea squirt, shelled and cleaned, is cut into manageable pieces and dressed with cucumber and salt in a two-part vinegar sauce. Its distinctive flavor makes a vinegared preparation the most popular choice, it is said. Wild-caught sea squirt is also good simply grilled or mixed into rice. It takes three to four years to mature; summer is peak season, though the fish taken around its December-January spawning period is also prized.
Why it took this shape
Wild sea squirt lives on the seabed at depths of 20 to 30 meters, requiring specialized diving skill to harvest. In Hirono, on the northern Sanriku coast, a diving technique called nanbu-kaduki, developed more than a century ago, survives, and because divers must gather the sea squirt one by one from the seafloor, it is thought to have come to be treated as an especially precious catch.
Dishes in the same style
- Akagarei no KomaburiRoe-bearing red flounder is sliced into sashimi and tossed with its own boiled, crumbled eggs, a dish from around the Amijiro area of Iwami Town. Said to have descended from a similar dish made with crucian carp roe, it pairs rich eggs with mild, fatty winter flounder for festivals and New Year's.
- Amagi no KawatakeA rare wild freshwater algae, found only in the Kogane River in Asakura, is dressed with sweet or three-flavor vinegar — said to have once been presented to the shogun, and now conservation efforts continue as it's listed as endangered.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Miyagi
- Aburafu DonDeep-fried wheat gluten, shaped into a log, is simmered in a sweet-savory broth and set with egg over rice, katsudon-style — a Tome City bowl said to trace to a tofu shop's shelf-stable gluten product, later turned into a bowl dish by a local innkeeper.
- AzaraNapa cabbage pickled long enough to turn sour is simmered slowly with rockfish trimmings and sake lees — a Kesennuma dish said to taste even better cold, or reheated the next day, long loved as everyday food.
- Bakke MisoButterbur sprouts picked in early spring — called 'bakke' locally — are boiled, chopped, and worked into a paste with walnuts and miso, said to be prized for helping clear the body of winter's buildup, spooned over rice or grilled fish.
- Donko JiruDonko, a brown hakeling landed at Ishinomaki and Kesennuma ports, is simmered in miso with daikon and tofu — a fish said to be considered lucky for money, given its wide mouth and narrow tail, and offered at the autumn ebisu-ko festival.
- Ebi MochiPaddy shrimp caught in irrigation channels and ponds are seasoned with soy sauce and sake, then folded whole into freshly pounded mochi — a Kurihara dish said to be served, red against white, to guests over New Year's.
- Fusube MochiLoach, grilled plain then smoked over an irori hearth, is ground to powder and simmered with grated daikon and burdock in a soy-chili sauce, then folded into freshly pounded mochi — said to be a mochi dish born of inland Kurihara's distance from the sea.