Journeys in photographs and words.

Cook the local flavors once more

Numazu, Shizuoka

The Numazu special: nigiri and gunkan sushi

From: Making sushi with a view of Mt. Fuji

Setting the plate of sushi on the counter
Setting the plate of sushi on the counter

Numazu Port is where the fish of Suruga Bay come ashore, with a street of restaurants serving seafood fresh off the boats. With tuna and white fish from the market and Numazu's famous raw whitebait, I put together a Numazu dinner. My first nigiri was not a complete success, but it was great fun and delicious.

Ingredients

  • Sushi rice
  • Tuna
  • White fish with the skin left on
  • Chopped tuna and green onion (negitoro)
  • Raw whitebait
  • Nori seaweed

How I made it

  1. Press the rice into pieces and top them with white fish and tuna
  2. Wrap rice in nori to make gunkan and fill them with negitoro
  3. Spoon raw whitebait onto the remaining gunkan

Sources: numazukanko.jp mlit.go.jp mapple.net tabelog.com

This moment in the journey

The Numazu special: a good-mood dinner

I carried the plate around the counter, and the Numazu special was ready: nigiri of white fish and tuna, gunkan of negitoro and raw whitebait. The crab miso soup is on the house.

I poured a glass of Ryoma 1865, a non-alcoholic beer, and raised it to the night in Numazu. My first attempt at nigiri was not a complete success, but it was great fun, and delicious.

I bit into the whitebait gunkan and picked apart the grilled horse mackerel with my chopsticks. Numazu, the town of Mt. Fuji and seafood: you get twice the fun at the same time.

Watch this scene on YouTube4:49

Read this scene in the full journey

Carrying the plate of sushi around the counter
Carrying the plate of sushi around the counter
Sushi, a small dish, chopsticks and a glass on the counter
Sushi, a small dish, chopsticks and a glass on the counter
A close-up of the sushi on the plate
A close-up of the sushi on the plate
Holding a wooden bowl with crab in it
Holding a wooden bowl with crab in it
Crab miso soup beside the sushi
Crab miso soup beside the sushi
Can in one hand, glass in the other, the crab bowl in front
Can in one hand, glass in the other, the crab bowl in front
Pouring from the can into the glass
Pouring from the can into the glass
A can of Ryoma 1865
A can of Ryoma 1865