After departing Takefu, we head straight to Toyama, and had a lovely dinner with Master Hanaki from Sukenari. The most famous produce from Toyama is shiro-ebi (small white shrimp) and the famous hotaru-ika (firefly squid).
The Shiro-ebi is a small white / slightly pink shrimp, about 6cm in length, living in the deep sea (100 to 600 meters) of Toyama bay. Due to the almost transparent body, shiro-ebi earned its name of “Gem of Toyama”. However it is very hard to harvest and preserve therefore traditionally only served in Toyama sushi restaurants, and considered a prime sushi ingredient. It is super sweet, rich in favor, and personally a must try whenever you got the chance.
(Toyama Shiro-ebi, toyama-asbb.com)
Hotaru-ika (Firefly squid), is a small bioluminescence (light-emitting living organism) squid found in the deep sea of Toyama bay. Bioluminescence by itself is rare in nature, Hotaru-ika for the most part lives in the deep sea and can only be harvested for an extremely short period of time (a few days every year), when they mysteriously commit mass suicide on the dark nights with the moon completely black, producing a final specular blue firework in the sea with their lives.
(Harvesting Hotaru-ika in Toyama, bbc.com)
Read more about hotaru ika here.
(Hotaru-ika sashimi, ana-cooljapan.com)
Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed the dinner with Hanaki-san, and the dishes were mouthwatering as always. yet I remember only taking some initial photos before passing out on the table after happily having a bit too much Sake.
PS, this blog intends to share with you about my experience of Japan, from a knife enthusiast’s point of view, and hopefully it may help you somehow in the future if you are planning to visit. Sometimes it might contain posts that are not directly related to knife, nevertheless hope you enjoy reading.