Rice dishes ── Sushi
Shima Zushi
Shima Zushi — island-style sushi with soy-marinated fish
Fish caught around the Izu Islands, tai and tuna among them, are marinated in soy sauce and shaped into nigiri with vinegared rice — said to have started as a way of keeping fish fresh out on the boat, and varying island to island since wasabi wasn't easy to come by, some using hot mustard, others a soy sauce steeped with island chili.
- Origin: Tokyo Hachijo Island
- About 290 km south of Tokyo
What it's made of
Fish marinated in a soy-sauce-based sauce, called "zuke," is pressed with rice seasoned with sugar, salt, and vinegar into this local dish of Hachijojima. In place of wasabi, some islands use hot mustard paste or a soy sauce infused with unripe island chili peppers, and slightly different versions are said to remain from island to island — a distinctly Izu Islands style of sushi still fondly told of today.
How it's made
Sushi toppings are cut into bite-sized pieces and marinated in soy sauce, sake, and mirin to make zuke. They are pressed onto rice seasoned with sugar, salt, and vinegar to finish. The topping is sometimes laid over rice mixed with sweet vinegared ginger and island nori for a chirashi-style presentation instead, and the style is said to vary in small ways from household to household or shop to shop, each island's character showing through.
Why it took this shape
The method of marinating fish in sauce is said to have arisen as a way to keep it fresh while out at sea in a boat. On islands where wasabi was hard to obtain, using hot mustard paste or island chili soy sauce instead is said to have taken root as a distinct workaround, and the sushi is said to have developed into varying styles from island to island, still carried on and protected today, changing form a little at a time within island life.
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 Tokyo
- Abura SobaNo broth is poured at all — noodles are tossed in a soy-and-sesame-oil tare pooled at the bottom of the bowl, said to have started at shops in the Musashino area in the late 1950s, with vinegar and chili oil stirred in partway through.
- Ajitsuke NoriSheet nori brushed with a soy-and-sugar seasoning and toasted crisp, said to have been devised as a gift for an imperial visit to Kyoto in the Meiji era. Its snap gives way to a burst of flavor and aroma.
- Anago ZushiConger eel, simmered sweet and savory, is laid over sushi rice and brushed with a reduced glaze called tsume — a staple Edomae topping from a fish that thrived in Tokyo Bay's nutrient-rich waters, its slick skin demanding a sushi chef's careful hand to clean.
- AnmitsuCubes of agar jelly topped with red peas, sweet bean paste, and dark syrup. Said to have begun when a Ginza sweets shop in the early Showa era added its own bean paste to the simpler "mitsumame" — jelly and peas in syrup — marking a point where wagashi met café culture.
- Asakusa shichimiA seven-spice chili blend from a shop tracing back to 1625 in Asakusa's old Yagenbori district, often described as the origin point of shichimi togarashi. The neighborhood's history as a hub for medicinal-herb wholesalers is credited with shaping a blend informed by traditional Chinese medicine, and the shop is known for custom-mixing blends to order.
- Bettara-zukeDaikon salted first, then pickled sweet in rice malt and sugar — said to descend from a lightly pickled daikon once sold at Edo's ebisu-kō market. The rice malt gives it a natural sweetness, and it still headlines Nihonbashi's autumn "Bettara Market."