---
title: Tsukudani
url: https://karigurashijourney.com/en/notes/tsukudani/
lang: en
journey: https://karigurashijourney.com/en/episodes/tokyo-nagaya/
---

# Tsukudani

A little of each town’s story　/　Chuo, Tokyo

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.

## 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.

![A small dish of clam and kelp tsukudani beside grilled salmon](https://karigurashijourney.com/img/tokyo-nagaya/s39-1200.jpg)
- Sources: https://www.mec-h.com/town/mh-harumi/11
- Sources: http://tenyasu.jp/

Read this scene in the full journey: https://karigurashijourney.com/en/episodes/tokyo-nagaya/