Sanma(saury) is a seasonal icon of Autumn. In Japanese, the name is expressed as "秋刀魚", fish of autumn sword, from the linear shape.
The best way of enjoying the seasonal delicacy is simply to grill and put salt and juice of sudachi(a kind of green citrus in Japan).
The festival of sanma is taken place on September in Meguro-ku Tokyo every year since 1996.
A traditional comedy story of Rakugo tells about a shogun(General) in Edo era who was fascinated by grilled sanma in Meguro. Just remind you, Meguro is 30km away from the sea and there is no port in the area. So the fish was caught somewhere elese obviously. The fact makes the story funny and interesting. The festival of sanma in Meguro come from the famous comedy story.
Today it is one of the festival dates. Thousands of sanma were grilled by local people and served to visitors at free. So the festival receives a lot of visitors who filled the main road of Meguro. They have to make a long que for getting a plate of sanma.
To get the best seasonal dish is not always easy!
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