Seafood ── Shellfish and cephalopods
Surume Ika
Japan's most-landed squid, named for how it dries
Japan's most heavily landed squid, named for the dried surume snack it is often turned into. Raw, it has a crisp bite and mild sweetness, used everywhere from sashimi to overnight-dried snacks, with fishing peaking in autumn and winter.
- Squid and octopus
What it's made of
Japan's most heavily landed squid. Raw, it has a crisp bite and a mild, refined sweetness; cooked, the flesh firms up into a chewier texture. Its name traces back to its use as surume, the dried snack it is turned into, a process said to draw out moisture and concentrate its savory flavor. It also lends itself to a wide range of other preparations, from overnight drying to salted shiokara and stuffed rice, with different parts suited to different dishes.
How it's made
Catching it relies on its habit of gathering under light at night: boats hang powerful lamps to draw in the shoal, a method known as isaribi-ryo, or fishing-fire fishing. Traditionally, rows of hooks on an automatic jigging rig haul them up one after another. Because freshness fades fast once landed, crews often gut and chill the catch on board right away, and that speed is said to be what keeps the flesh translucent enough for sashimi, with careful skinning shaping the texture further.
Why it took this shape
The waters around Hakodate sit on a tidal front where a warm and a cold current meet, said to make it a spot where shoals tend to gather. Isaribi-ryo developed to chase this squid as it migrates through in autumn and winter, and the lights it casts across the night sea remain a fixture of this port town. A long fishing season is thought to be part of why its processing culture grew so varied, and buyers still crowd the docks each time a boat comes in.
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
- Aori IkaA large squid whose fin skirts the entire body. Its translucent flesh carries strong sweetness and a thick, dense texture, making it one of the pricier squid at market, best raw as sashimi or sushi, in season summer through autumn.
- Hotaru IkaA small squid about 5cm long with light-producing organs. Its rise to shallow water to spawn each spring is a well-known seasonal sight. Eaten whole, guts included, boiled and dressed in vinegar-miso for a rich, faintly bitter taste.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Known source
- Known source: Hokkaido, Hakodate
A port so tied to squid fishing that its night-time fishing-boat lights draw tourists.
Contrast
- Sumi IkaA squid with a chalky internal shell instead of cartilage. Its flesh stays tender when cooked, springy and thick with a refined sweetness, favored in sushi, stir-fries, and dishes using its ink, said to deepen in flavor winter through spring.
- Aori IkaA large squid whose fin skirts the entire body. Its translucent flesh carries strong sweetness and a thick, dense texture, making it one of the pricier squid at market, best raw as sashimi or sushi, in season summer through autumn.
Uses
- Ika MenchiMinced squid tentacles rolled with vegetables and fried, a Tsugaru-region home dish. Said to have been devised in the postwar years of scarcity as a way to use squid without waste, now loved as a soul food across Aomori.
- Matsumae-zukeShredded dried squid and kelp steeped in a soy-based marinade — a preserve said to trace to Matsumae in southern Hokkaido. It began with herring roe from the region's herring fishery and remains a fixture of New Year's cooking.
- IkameshiSquid bodies are stuffed with a mix of glutinous and regular rice, then slow-simmered in a soy-sweet broth. Said to have been devised as a station bento at Mori Station during wartime rice shortages.
- Surume no Kouji ZukeSquid caught in autumn is wind-dried, then chopped and buried in koji to ferment, a winter preserve from snow-heavy Tottori. It's often cured alongside salted vegetables like cucumber and eggplant, softening as koji's sweetness seeps in.