Numazu is one of Japan's leading producers of dried fish; fish drying at the Numazu post town even appears in Hiroshige's Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido. From the late Meiji to the Taisho era, dried-fish wholesalers clustered around the mouth of the Kano River, and by the early Showa era the present method was established: the fish is split open, gutted, soaked in brine and dried in the sun. A mild climate and sea breezes, abundant spring water from Mt. Fuji, fresh fish from Suruga Bay and the growth of transport such as the Tokaido Line are said to have supported the industry. This time I grilled dried horse mackerel from the port and mixed it into rice.
Sources: shizuoka-gastronomy.jp
This moment in the journey
Making a Numazu bowl from the treasures of Suruga Bay
Time to make dinner. I opened the grill and cooked Numazu's dried horse mackerel, packed with the flavor of Suruga Bay. When the rice cooker was done, I took the grilled fish off the bones and mixed it into the hot rice.
The horse mackerel sashimi became tataki: I chopped it fine with a knife, and set half of it aside in a bowl with white sesame and soy sauce to marinate. Something to look forward to tomorrow morning. Half of the cherry-colored treasures of Suruga Bay went into kakiage: mixed with batter and dropped into amber sesame oil, they fried up beautifully.
Over the horse mackerel rice in a blue bowl went shredded nori, then the tataki and raw whitebait on shiso leaves, and finally the raw sakura shrimp and green onion. The Numazu bowl was complete.
Watch this scene on YouTube5:56
More notes from this journey
Numazu, Shizuoka
Numazu bowl (Numazu-don)
Numazu-don is a local specialty born at a Numazu bowl contest in 2000: rice cooked with dried horse mackerel, topped with raw whitebait, raw sakura shrimp and c…
From: Gifts of the sea in a town that looks out on Mt. Fuji
Numazu, Shizuoka
Sakura shrimp kakiage
Every sakura shrimp landed in Japan comes from Suruga Bay.
From: Gifts of the sea in a town that looks out on Mt. Fuji
Numazu, Shizuoka
Horse mackerel chazuke
The half of the chopped horse mackerel I had set aside while making the Numazu bowl spent the night in soy sauce and became the next morning's chazuke.
From: Gifts of the sea in a town that looks out on Mt. Fuji
Numazu, Shizuoka
Asa-Ichi, the morning market in the Arcade Meitengai
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From: Gifts of the sea in a town that looks out on Mt. Fuji
Numazu, Shizuoka
Sakura shrimp of Suruga Bay
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From: Gifts of the sea in a town that looks out on Mt. Fuji
Numazu, Shizuoka
Nishiura mandarins and the Jutaro variety
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From: Gifts of the sea in a town that looks out on Mt. Fuji
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From: Lighting the kamado in a house in the sky
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From: Lighting the kamado in a house in the sky
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Skewered yamame trout
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Rice-ball bento in bamboo sheath
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The Numazu special: nigiri and gunkan sushi
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From: Making sushi with a view of Mt. Fuji