Following our first post “Introduction of seafood in Hokkaido No. 1”, we introduce Hokkaido’s local specialty “seafood” with images showing how they look and how they are cooked as some examples.
On the first post, we covered a few ways to enjoy them raw, such as sushi, sashimi or don (in rice bowl), while on this second post, we show several other ways, cooking and processing.
Grill
“Shishamo” (シシャモ, Willow leaf fish)
The small and slim shaped fish is an icon of Autumn and one of typical dishes available at Izakaya.People in Hokkaido have had Shishamo for decades.
The best way to enjoy Shishamo is “Grill” like above.
Shishamo in Hokkaido is much more tasty than what we have in Tokyo,
because what is available in Tokyo as Shishamo is actually a bit different species.
Steaming
“Kaki” (牡蠣, oyster)
A pot filled with steamd oysters had good smell. To be honest, I, the owner of this blog, personally… do not like oyster. But the perfume came from the pot made my feeling and I had tried a piece that was very good.
Akkeshi (厚岸) is one of the best fisheries for Kaki, oyster.
We dropped by the town and found a fishery site.
On October, KAKI (oyster) festival is hold in Akkeshi.
Shabu Shabu
“Kani” (蟹, crab)
Beef Shabu shabu (food dipping in boiled water) is the most common but other food ingredients can be also enjoyed in the cooking way shabu shabu.
We tried crab shabu shabu on an evening.
It will be better to ask a restaurant staff
how long it should be cooked in order to have it at the best condition.
Chan-chan yaki
“Sake” (鮭, salmon)
Chan-chan yaki is not yet known even out of Hokkaido in Japan.
It is seafood cooked with “miso” paste and is often made and had by fishermen.
For our lunch, the restaurant's master cooked our chan-chan yaki on an iron plate.
We could take salmon as well as a lot of vegetable (mainly cabbage).
Dried
"Hokke" (ホッケ, Okhotsk atka mackerel)
Hokke is (probably) never served raw.
In most cases it is served after dried and cooked.
By making fish dried, shelf life is extended dramatically.
We guess,
that must help a lot the life of people in north regions with heavy snow for centries.
The salty taste goes well with rice or sake.
On the way from Wakkanai to Asahikawa, we could see how fish is dried.
In plain near the Okhotsk ocean, they were hung from wooden shelves for dring.
Cooked in pot
“Kani” (蟹, crab) again...
It's a good idea to cook crab legs in any kind soup,
as the juice can also be enjoyed in the soup.
For example,
we found it in Miso soup for lunch
or hot pot
Finally it was cooked with egg and soup.
Here is the end of our second post about Seafood in Hokkaido, which shows how much they vary in term of type of creature as well as cooking way.
The series of blog post "Hokkaido" still continues and will talk about seafood a bit more on next post as well.
