Journeys in photographs and words.

Cook the local flavors once more

Chuo, Tokyo

A shitamachi breakfast: grilled salmon and tofu miso soup

From: A downtown table in a Tokyo row house

A tray of rice, grilled salmon and tsukudani
A tray of rice, grilled salmon and tsukudani

Tsukudani was born in neighboring Tsukuda. The fishermen from Osaka whom Tokugawa Ieyasu brought here are said to have simmered small fish and shellfish in salt and soy sauce as a preserved food for fishing trips; cheap and long-lasting, it spread among the people of Edo. This morning it was clam and kelp tsukudani from a shop founded in 1837, alongside miso soup made with tofu fresh from a nearby shop.

Ingredients

  • Cooked rice
  • Salmon fillet
  • Freshly made tofu
  • Green onions
  • Seaweed
  • Miso
  • Tsukudani (clam and kelp)

How I made it

  1. Chop the green onions
  2. Grill the salmon in a toaster oven until the skin is crisp
  3. Make miso soup with the tofu, seaweed and green onions
  4. Serve with freshly cooked rice and tsukudani on a tray

Sources: mec-h.com

This moment in the journey

A good-mood breakfast

Time to make breakfast with what I bought. I chopped green onions and slid a salmon fillet into the toaster oven. Once the skin was crisp and golden, I scooped rice from the cooker in the kitchen.

Past the steep wooden stairs, I carried the tray to the low table in front of the shoji screens. Freshly cooked rice, freshly grilled salmon. Miso soup with the just-made tofu and chopped green onions, and tsukudani, the shitamachi specialty.

In the striped dish, clam and kelp tsukudani, simmered sweet and salty, perfect with white rice. A good-mood breakfast.

Watch this scene on YouTube1:14

Read this scene in the full journey

Chopping green onions on a cutting board
Chopping green onions on a cutting board
Sliding a salmon fillet into the toaster oven
Sliding a salmon fillet into the toaster oven
A salmon fillet grilled golden brown
A salmon fillet grilled golden brown
Standing at the toaster oven and rice cooker in the kitchen
Standing at the toaster oven and rice cooker in the kitchen
A steep wooden staircase, with an old chest and baskets under a bare bulb
A steep wooden staircase, with an old chest and baskets under a bare bulb
Carrying the breakfast tray past the stairs
Carrying the breakfast tray past the stairs
Setting the tray on the low table by the shoji screens
Setting the tray on the low table by the shoji screens
A wooden bowl of miso soup with tofu and green seaweed
A wooden bowl of miso soup with tofu and green seaweed