In the old Tsukiji market you walked past wooden boxes of the flakes wafting gently in the breeze and saw people milling them with green enamelled powered industrial bench planes, while cooking gas powered market trolleys trundled around, with curious drum like round control panels shifting frozen tuna sides and boxes of abalone. I've never seen those motorised carts anywhere else.<p>the stuff we buy in packets here in oz must suffer in transit and packaging, they are shattered fragments but they still waft gently in the steam of a bowl of salmon and rice.<p>The bonito shavings reminded me of the litter around a wood turners lathe. Waste there, but here the point of the exercise.<p>I think I've had them served as a garnish on Oden. They dance.
I was at a fish ramen place in Tokyo, they had a bonito block with a hand operated shaver, looked like a giant pencil sharpener.<p>Next to the ramen they would serve the bonito flakes contained in a small net, And suggest to soak for 10 seconds, but no more than 30 because the flavor would be too intense.
Reading this almost put me in that place. Thank you!
Love to see an excellent example of writing that no AI could possibly write because it does not have human experiences to provide a unique perspective. Sadly, after they get hoovered up by the AI companies, these words will eventually be laundered through the plagiarism machine.
I'm actually very curious about the process.<p>I'm allergic to fish (can't eat tuna, salmon, etc.) but I can eat food made with pretty much any type of bonito-based dashi I've ever tried.<p>Especially Japanese food like nabe, nikujaga, Aomori-style thick niboshi soup base ramen.<p>Never really understood it.
My wife is also allergic to fish.<p>She can have bonito and fish sauce, and (most strangely) canned tuna. Any fresh fish makes her violently ill. She had to learn the hard way that many restaurants make their tuna salad with fresh tuna.
By the sound of it, you have a protein allergy. That is, you are allergic to a specific, or set of specific, proteins. When the proteins are denatured, you seem to not be allergic. This can happen at high temperature, low pH, or sometimes through oxidation. There’s a substantial amount of research on this if you want to look it up. But, for it to be particularly constructive, first you would need to determine to which protein you are allergic
Or to a protein that is sufficiently insoluble protein that there isn’t much of it in dashi.<p>One could (but maybe shouldn’t) eat a bonito flake or two as an experiment.
I have quite a lot of allergies myself. May I ask, isn't all allergies due to the protein?
"Proteins" is not one thing, it's a class of many different things made from amino acids. Same as the "peptide" craze you might have heard of, except proteins are bigger.<p>Antibodies don't have to bind only to proteins, it could be some lipid, carbohydrate, any molecule big enough. Most of the time it's <i>some</i> protein, but it's not an allergy proteins in general.
Basically any chemical structure beyond a certain size can cause an allergy. It doesn't even have to be an organic compund.
I wondered if you'd be allergic to Surströmming. I haven't had the privilege to try it yet.
There are other types of dried fish from different cuisines. Sri Lankan food uses dried tuna very heavily, and some other types of dried fish in particular dishes. Might be worth trying to see whether you react to that.<p>Do you react to other fish products such as south east Asian fish sauce? Salted and/or fermented fish?
> I'm allergic to fish...<p>I'd guess that your allergy is to some class of proteins in the fish - and that the production steps for dried bonito (and maybe the time required) denature or destroy those proteins.
This is a very good video on the topic that shows the whole process: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzULuj0wU4k" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzULuj0wU4k</a> (the whole series of videos is good)
Maldives fish is probably this but without the Japanese perfectionism.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maldives_fish" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maldives_fish</a><p>PS: Still great, BTW
Japan cultivates those oases of mindful living to the point where it feels like art. Beautiful.
TIL. <i>Want.</i> I'm going to buy some for myself. This video brings back memories of amazing restaurants in Japan.
How did they hit upon this method? Was it an accidental discovery hundreds of years ago or was ot carefully arrived at through thinking how to make this kind of food?
Almost certainly it was an incremental discovery process, first cooking and/or fumigating tuna for other consumption, then extending its shelf life by fermentation and/or sun-drying, discovering that evening out the exterior with paste helps extend it, then solving the problem that extended drying leads to hard consistency by shaving off very thin slices, stuff like that. They didn’t set out with “oh we need very thin dried tuna slices for dashi and seasoning” and then invented a whole process for that.
I’m sure someone over smoked a fish and someone desperate tried to eat it. Then it was gradually improved.
Deboning that many fillets by hand is insane
been wondering why that thing is so expensive. Now I dig it.
I've never tried dried bonito before but now I'll have to
It’s very easy to make dashi at home with bonito and kombu (dried kelp). From there you can use it as a base for different soups or to cook with.<p>There are different kinds of dashi but those are the two ingredients I use since they’re readily available and non-perishable.
Delicious, buttery fish. Makes excellent sashimi too.
Crazy how fish can look like a gem.
I really love Dried Bonito. It makes tasty everything.
The article fails to define it's subject. Do better.
I was a bit put off katsuobushi when I read that because of the tar in the smoking process it can contain carcinogenic benzopyrene
The Edo period ended in 1868 so that 1888 shop is not making them like in the Edo period any more than a shop that makes them like in the Edo period since 2017.
*1882<p>Is this supposed to be some insightful criticism? They've been making the same product for 144 years, and managed to retain the technique from an era only 14 years prior. That's an achievement.<p>If a place started doing the same in 2017, guess what, they could still make it like they did in the Edo period.<p>Apart from a bit of machinery for lifting, and starting with frozen fish (which they thaw first anyway), it's basically all manual labour, including adjusting the fire temperature.