A preserved food of small fish, shellfish or seaweed simmered down in soy sauce and sugar. The fishermen of Tsukuda made it to keep and to take out on their boats; cheap and long-lasting, it caught on in Edo and took its name from the neighborhood. Tenyasu Honten sells tsukudani of clams, tiny shrimp, kelp, squid and whitebait, cooked the old way.
Sources: mec-h.com tenyasu.jp
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
More notes from this journey
Chuo, Tokyo
A shitamachi breakfast: grilled salmon and tofu miso soup
Tsukudani was born in neighboring Tsukuda.
From: A downtown table in a Tokyo row house
Chuo, Tokyo
Omurice
One story has it that omurice was born in the mid-1920s at a Western-style restaurant in Osaka, where the owner wrapped ketchup rice in a thin omelet for a regu…
From: A downtown table in a Tokyo row house
Chuo, Tokyo
Tsukishima and Tsukuda
Tsukuda was built as a fishing village by fishermen from Tsukuda in Settsu Province, brought to Edo by Tokugawa Ieyasu, and is the birthplace of tsukudani.
From: A downtown table in a Tokyo row house
Chuo, Tokyo
Sumiyoshi Shrine, Tsukuda
Founded in 1646 with a spirit brought from Tamino Shrine in Tsukuda, Settsu Province, the home village of the fishermen who built Tsukudajima.
From: A downtown table in a Tokyo row house
Chuo, Tokyo
Monjayaki
A shitamachi specialty: a loose batter of flour and water cooked on a griddle with cabbage and other fillings.
From: A downtown table in a Tokyo row house
Chuo, Tokyo
Tenyasu Honten (tsukudani)
Founded in 1837, this is the oldest tsukudani shop still standing in Tsukuda.
From: A downtown table in a Tokyo row house
More notes from Kanto
Kamogawa, Chiba
Namero on rice
Namero is a Chiba specialty handed down along the coast of the Boso Peninsula.
From: Zero minutes to the sea: summer vacation in Kamogawa
Kamogawa, Chiba
Sauce yakisoba
A staple of summer festival stalls.
From: Zero minutes to the sea: summer vacation in Kamogawa
Kamogawa, Chiba
Grilled seafood skewers
The taste of the festival stall, on a small charcoal grill on the veranda.
From: Zero minutes to the sea: summer vacation in Kamogawa
Kamakura, Kanagawa
A little Kamakura drinking set
At the farmers' market near Kamakura Station, growers from around Kamakura sell "Kamakura vegetables," many varieties in small quantities, grown with as little…
From: A hundred-year-old house in the town of the Enoden
Kamakura, Kanagawa
Kenchin-jiru
A soup of root vegetables and tofu, sautéed in oil before simmering.
From: A Kamakura-vegetable breakfast and a walk on Enoshima
Kamakura, Kanagawa
Kamakura morning set with grilled dried fish
Kenchin-jiru made with Kamakura vegetables, with dried fish from the market shop grilled alongside.
From: A Kamakura-vegetable breakfast and a walk on Enoshima