Seafood ── Shellfish and cephalopods
Bafun Uni
a small, dark urchin named for resembling horse droppings
A small urchin whose shell shape is said to resemble horse droppings, hence the name. Richer and creamier than murasaki uni, in season winter through spring, often sold preserved in brine rather than alum.
- Other styles
Lineage
What it's made of
A small urchin, about 4cm across its shell, shaped like a squashed bun and covered in short spines over a dark greenish shell. What's eaten is the gonad, at its best once it fattens back up with reserves after spawning, said to carry a richer sweetness and a denser, creamier texture than murasaki uni. Just before spawning it builds up a bitter compound called pulcherrimine, making that window a poor time to eat it.
How it's made
Harvested by ama and ama-otoko free divers, or by a method called funadori, scooping urchins from a boat with a net or hook while scanning the seabed through a glass-bottomed box. Because the gonad is pulled out the moment the shell is cracked open, freshness is hard to hold, so it's sold fresh but also shipped preserved in brine as shiomizu-uni, or processed into a salted paste, with the form it takes to market varying by region.
Why it took this shape
Because it feeds mainly on shallow-reef seaweed such as sea lettuce and agar weed, waters rich in kelp and other seaweed, like those around Rebun Island, are said to raise especially well-filled urchins. Its gonad swells outside the January-to-April spawning window, and that biology alone is what sets the season for eating it.
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.
- Roadside stations, direct-sale stands, and marketsHow to enjoy buying food near where it's produced, visiting and shopping at morning markets and fish markets, what to expect at farm stands, and finding local food at roadside stations (michi-no-eki).
- Foods to look for in winterA guide to foods often seen in Japan around winter — nabe hot pot, fugu, oysters, crab, year-end soba, and osechi — with rough pointers for finding them.
Dishes in the same style
- HoyaAn invertebrate that lives fixed to rocks. Its distinct aroma, somewhere between brine and pineapple, and a lingering sweetness make it a delicacy people either love or avoid, eaten raw or vinegared, in season through summer.
- Murasaki UniIts shell and spines run purplish-black, but the roe inside is pale gold. Milder and more refined than bafun uni, said to have a distinctly grainy texture, eaten raw or as sushi, in season through summer.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Known source
- Known source: Hokkaido, Rebun
Around Rebun Island, where it feeds on kelp, the urchin is said to fill out especially well.