Rice dishes ── Sushi
Happa Zushi
Happa zushi — a block sushi of salted trout wrapped in tung tree leaves
Thin slices of salted trout and ginger are laid on vinegared rice, wrapped in tung tree leaves, and pressed under weight — a block sushi from along the Kuzuryu River. Its pale pink color is considered fitting for celebrations, and it is said to be made the day before a festival or Obon.
- Origin: Fukui Eiheiji
- About 310 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
A pressed sushi wrapping vinegared rice, trout, and ginger together in a tung tree leaf, so the trout's faint tang meets the rice's clean sourness, with ginger's sharp bite trailing after. Made in a wooden mold under a weight, it comes out in a neat square, and its pale pink color is said to suit it well to festive occasions.
How it's made
Thinly sliced salted trout is cured in vinegar, then wrapped with vinegared rice and ginger in a tung tree leaf, packed tightly into a wooden sushi mold and weighted down. Made the day before, it's said to reach its best flavor by the next day. The leaf's naturally oily surface keeps rice from sticking, so it's said to be eaten by peeling back the leaf rather than using chopsticks.
Why it took this shape
In the Eiheiji district along the Kuzuryu River, households are said to have planted tung trees in their yards and treated them as 'sushi trees,' valued for how well their leaves keep food fresh and fragrant. The trout's pale pink color once cured in vinegar is said to look festive enough on its own, which is said to be how this dish settled in as fare for festivals and gatherings.
Before you go
- How to read a vertical menuIn shops with strips of handwritten menu items on the wall, the top-right spot is often used for recommendations.
- 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 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.
Dishes in the same style
- Aburi-zushiNigiri with just its surface flash-seared by torch or hot iron. Unlike Edomae's shigoto curing for keeping, the searing here is done purely for the change in aroma and fat it brings — a relatively recent way of eating sushi.
- Aichi HakozushiVinegared rice is packed into a wooden frame, topped with shrimp, eel, shiitake, and egg arranged diagonally, and pressed. Placing toppings on the diagonal so everyone gets a fair share of each is said to be a feature of the Owari and western Mikawa style, made for celebrations.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Fukui
- Atsuage no NitaThick fried tofu, blanched and scored with a cross cut, is simmered sweet-savory in dashi, soy sauce, and mirin with a dash of ginger juice. Fukui leads the country in fried-tofu consumption, and this dish is said to have moved from a Honkoko feast dish into everyday cooking.
- BokkakeThick fried tofu, burdock, and shirataki noodles are simmered in a bonito broth and poured hot, broth and all, over freshly cooked rice — eaten for over a century since the early 1910s. In Katsuyama it is said to take a chazuke-like turn, topped with fish cake and mitsuba.
- ChameshiRoasted soybeans are steeped in hot roasted barley tea, and rice is then cooked in that same tea — a dish from the old post town of Imajo, said to descend from Nara's 'nara-chameshi'. It is said to be indispensable at memorial services, Honkoko, and for daughters visiting home.
- Choju NamasuGround sesame is worked into a paste with miso, thick fried tofu, mustard, and vinegar, then tossed with shredded daikon, carrot, and snap peas — a New Year salad whose name literally wishes long life, also said to appear at memorial services and Honkoko.
- Decchi YokanSweet red bean paste is set with agar, sugar, and a pinch of salt into a thin, water-yokan-like winter confection. It is said to have begun when a young apprentice, home for New Year from a Kyoto shop, stretched a bar of yokan with water to share with neighbors, eaten by the kotatsu.
- Echizen Oroshi SobaA cold soba from Echizen, Fukui, topped with grated daikon and bonito flakes. It is said to originate with a soba maker a local lord brought from Kyoto to promote buckwheat as an emergency food crop.