Rice dishes ── Sushi toppings
Negitoro
minced fatty tuna scraps mounded on a rice cup, wrapped in nori
Fatty tuna scraps, including meat scraped from the bone, minced fine. It's counted among the standard toppings for gunkan-maki, offering a fat-and-stickiness unity a sliced cut can't give — said to have started as a way not to waste meat left on the bone.
Lineage
What it's made of
Meat scraped from the bone and other sinewy parts of the fatty tuna too awkward to slice as a cut, minced fine. Beyond the fat's own sweetness, the stickiness that comes from mincing with a blade is said to be the point. Chopped scallion is often mixed in, though some shops skip it. The way it melts and spreads in the mouth is said to be a different pleasure than tuna served as a clean slice.
How it's made
Meat left clinging to the bone is carefully scraped off, then chopped with a blade to cut through the sinew until fine. It's mounded onto a cup of vinegared rice wrapped in nori — the gunkan-maki shape, said to be built precisely so a topping too loose to hold its form doesn't spill. Some shops add chopped pickled ginger alongside the scallion.
Why it took this shape
It's said to have started as a way not to waste the tuna meat left on the bone. Minced meat like this can't keep its shape as nigiri, but a gunkan-maki, with nori holding rice around it, can carry it. Once gunkan-maki was reportedly invented at a Ginza sushi shop around 1940, loose toppings like negitoro became far easier to serve as sushi, and it's now counted among the style's standard toppings.
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.
- Station food and ekiben (station bento)Where and when to find ekiben (station bento) before it sells out, etiquette for eating on board, how standing soba and udon stalls work, and where to find souvenirs sold inside the station.
- Soraben and airport diningA guide to what soraben means and how it differs from ekiben, whether to buy before or after security, etiquette for eating on board, airport restaurants, and things to check before buying food souvenirs to take home.
Dishes in the same style
- AkagaiA clam named for its red flesh, colored by blood that carries an iron-based pigment rather than the copper most mollusks use. Prized for its crisp bite, it's a premium topping often substituted commercially with the smaller ark shell relative sarubō-gai, and freshness shapes the work more than almost anything else.
- Akami no ZukeLean tuna cured in a soy-based marinade. Born as a way to keep the fish from spoiling before refrigeration existed, it's said to survive today as its own deliberate preparation even now that fattier cuts get the attention — one of the founding techniques of Edomae sushi itself.