初めてのヘラブナ釣り

やってみたら　意外と面白かった。あとでもっとくわしく書きます。

江戸前ハゼ

釣りました。

Cook’s Knives

Specifically, mine. Last weekend I was invited to a birthday function on a yakatabune and had some other matters to attend to, so I didn’t go fishing (apart from sneakily dropping a baited line from the aft of the ship during the party).  Since I haven’t posted recently I thought I might put this online, as many visitors at various stages have asked about the knives I use for my cooking.  Also, I don’t think there is a resource online that describes the process of looking after traditional Japanese cooks knives in English; the process isn’t half as mystical as one might imagine and is fairly straightforward.

Miyakojima Island Traditional Fishing

One interesting thing I find about fishing Japan is discovering local traditional fishing techniques, and having a go for oneself. In my limited experience, most non-Japanese anglers one meets over here tend to go for fly or lure fishing using modern equipment to chase big game like tuna, yellowtail, mahi mahi, sea bass and the like, and not for the more traditional Japanese fishing. With so many different biotopes and varying local conditions – along with the Japanese penchant for eating almost anything from the sea – many specialised fishing techniques have developed over the ages, and often these are restricted to very specific regions. On Miyakojima island, fishermen use a technique called ishimaki-otoshi (lit. ‘wrapped stone drop’) which is well suited to catching large fish from the nooks and crannies that comprise the coral sea floor around the island. No special equipment is required other than a coil of good strong nylon line, a nice big fish hook and some bait fish.  And some stones…

Eating Sri Lanka

I ate rather well when I was in Sri Lanka. Although I was unable to explore the full spectrum of Sri Lankan cuisine – I didn’t have a chance to eat hoppers for example, or try Tamil food – I thoroughly indulged myself in some local specialties.

Filleting Japanese goby (haze)

Gobies have slightly tougher bones and larger fins than whiting (featured in my earlier video) which just means that the edge on your cooking knife gets dull quicker.  Also, they produce more slime which means it is a good idea to scale the fish with the blade of a knife, as this removes a lot of the slime with the scales.  Otherwise the technique for filleting is identical.  I deliberated slowed down for the camera, but with practice, it is quite easy to fillet one goby in about 45 seconds.  This lot I did in about ten minutes, easily enough for five servings.

秋物語

きょうもハゼ釣り行ってきました。

ハゼの昆布〆

私の大好きな昆布〆、ハゼで作りました。まずは大型ハゼを釣らないと…今回は２匹で作ります。私の昆布〆は色々研究してきたけど、我流のやり方は紹介します。決してこれが「一番おいしい」や「正しい」作り方ではありません。