Flounder fin

And to finish, a lovely bit of flounder fin.

Conch

Next up is a bit of conch.

Surf clam

A bit of interesting sushi today. First up, surf clam.

Red snapper calpacho

I am led to believe that calpacho is a cooking style popular in Japan that has pretty much been stolen from the Italians. It seems to me, in this case, to be a pile of raw fish (here red snapper) with vegetables underneath. Was delightful.

Takoyaki croquette

Takoyaki are octopus balls - bits of octopus cooked in a kind of batter. These balls are then covered in potato and deep fried. I enjoyed this dish. I wanted seconds.

Vegetables with tofu sauce

An interesting dish. I wasn't quite sure what the vegetables were but it didn't matter because the sauce dominated the taste. Pretty enjoyable.

Stingray fin

Lightly cooked with a bit of mayo on the side, this was lovely.

Shiokara

This is squid cooked in its own innards. This is the first dish on this blog that I actually didn't like.

Fat Oyster

This was lightly grilled. One eats it whole. It tasted great but I don't think I could have had a second plate.

Raw tuna rib steak

The raw tuna meat from around the ribs. Lovely with a bit of wasabi and soy sauce.

Grilled sardine

You eat the whole fish. It tasted salty.

Thunder tofu

This is almost-raw tofu with leeks, fried egg and hot peppers. The stock was great - perhaps it was fish stock. It had quite a kick to it.

Motsu Nabe

Nabe (pronounced nar-bay) is similar to a boiled stew I guess. Motsu indicates the presence of organs and other such innards. This particular nabe had pork collagen in it. One boils it up and one eats the mixture after about 10 or so minutes. Inside the pot are also miscellaneous vegetables and tofu. Quite good on a chilly evening. Once the main ingredients had been consumed, noodles were added to the stock.

Raw horse again

The first repeat. This is a selection of raw horse from different parts of the body. It was pretty hard to understand which was which but one was from the neck and one was from around the ribs.

Raw bonito

Can't beat a nice bit of raw fish.

Fried tofu

A nice way to make a healthy dish somewhat unhealthy!

Tea smoked duck

Not very common to find duck in Japan. It just melted in my mouth. And having been smoked with tea, it had a wonderful kick.

Miniature squid

So very tender. A pleasure to eat.

Gyoza

Those who have visited Japan or China will be familiar with Gyoza. These fried dumplings are heaven on a plate. These ones had meat and cheese inside them. I also had meat and celery ones. Hot juice squirts out if you bite it wrongly so it can be messy to eat. But lovely.

Small enclosed dragons

Sometimes the literal translations are the best. This style of dumpling is scorchingly hot and it is hard to eat with any sense of decorum. The filling is meat mixed with a miscellaneous mix of vegetables and other things. Again, this is a heavy Chinese influence but still I want to show it off here.

Zasai

The only translation I could find for zasai was Chinese picked vegetable. I hear that this is only grown in China so it isn't technically a Japanese food. But since I ate it in Japan, I am happy for it to go here. It is a root vegetable. Pretty nice actually.