| 7. Carp Dishes |
◆Many places famous for carp dishes in Japan
Many places famous for carp dishes have been introduced on TV, in magazines
and so on. I’d like to talk about them starting from the north.
*Yonezawa city in Yamagata prefecture
In Edo era(1600-1867), Uesugi in Yonezawa clan, encouraged his people
to cultivate carp by using chrysalises of silkworms as feed.
*Tamatsukuri town and Itako city in Ibaraki prefecture
They are famous for their largest amount of cultivated carp in Japan
*Saku city in Nagano prefecture
This city has been cultivating carp for more than three hundred
years, using clear water.
*Along the Kiso, Nagara, Ibi Rivers in Gifu prefecture
*Tado town in Mie prefecture
There is a famous carp dish restaurant which many travelers visited to
get energy on their way to and from Ise Shrine in Edo era(1600-1867).
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| The map of Japan, but only the northern part of the main island of Japan |
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| Carp grilled with rice wine(Sake), soy sauce and suger. The taste of carp
eggs is unforgettable. |
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Variety of carp dishes
i) Grill carp and then baste it with the sauce made of soy source, sugar and sake (rice wine)
ii) Grill carp fillet marinated in the marinate of rice wine, sugar and
soy souce.
iii) The common ones (Arai) are to slice thinly raw carp, and then wash
the slices in ice water. Eat them with soy souce.
iv) Also you can try other special dishes such as
roasted carp sprinkled with salt.
v) Butterfly small carp and grill or smok it.
At Shimizuya in Itako city, very big carp grilled with sake, soy sauce
tasted as nice as usual for a long time.
You can’t forget the taste of eggs of carp once you tried them.
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Koi-koku
Carp cooked in the soup of soybean paste(Miso-soup)
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Slices of raw carp (Sashimi) as a main part of hors d'oeuvre |
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| ◆ Carp dishes at my house |
Carp rice:
Slice the cleaned carp and boil it in hot water. After taking the
bones and skin away, add soy sauce, sugar and sweet sake(Mirin) for
seasoning, vegetables (especially mushrooms and thinly cut ginger to diminish
the odor and boil them together.)
Mix rice and these.
You can also mix rice with carp meat and the soup which is made while
you boil the carp and cook
rice and carp meat together.
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Pickled with miso(soybean paste):
Clean and slice the carp into 2-3 cm thickness. If the carp is big,
you can cut it into half along with its mall-bone then slice Dry
carp slice with paper napkin. Pickle the carp slice in the miso mixture,
sugar and sake( or sweet sake).
To pickle them be sure all carp slices are covered by miso mixture.
Several days after pickling, you grill it and eat. If you don’t like
mall bones of carp, take them away before pickling or after you grilled
the carp. You can also add lemon or ginger to diminish the odor if
you wish.
You should make pickled carp from the late fall to the early spring and
keep it in the refrigerator
because it is raw.
The basic rule for carp cooking is to use live carp and you should season
carp a little bit sweet. You can also use wine(red or white) instead
of sake or sweet sake. Besides, I think the bigger the carp is the
more delicious. It’s an angler’s privilege to cook live carp weighing from
7 to 10kg.. It is desirable to keep the fished carp in clean water for
a week and then cook it if you could.
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◆Carp dishes in foreign countries
Germany
During my residence in Germany, I was wandering in Dusseldorf on
Christmas holidays and happened to find live carp at a small supermarket.
I hadn’t known that German people eat carp until then. It was a wide,
cultivated carp. I also learned that there were some ponds for cultivating carp in Bohemian
District on TV in 2004. From program I learned that very big carp live in the Rhine and Donau River.
I wonder how they cook carp.
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| Carp dishes at Bamberg, Germany |
Bamberg |
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