Seasonal Food: Iwashi
Iwashi (鰯) is coming into season as we speak. Even though it sounds like an exotic Japanese fish that is seldom available at your run of the mill Japanese restaurants or kaiten sushi places, we are sure that almost of you readers have, at some point in life, eaten Iwashi, because it is non other than the humble sardine.
In our case, we have Ma-iwashi or Sardinops melanostictus (真鰯) in the restaurant. It's also known as the Japanese Sardine or Spotted Sardine. We don't think it's necessary to describe what a sardine looks like but most people are surprised by how big the fresh ones are with head and all. It's still not much flesh to go around but worth every bit. It's one of our favorite fish for sashimi. You will be wondering right now if we are crazy to serve sardines raw?!? Trust us, it's the best way to enjoy this soft and fatty fish. It's stronger and oilier tasting than Aji but the flesh has a creamy texture that is found in no other fish. Sashimi is the only way to appreciate the texture and flavour together with the slight grittiness of the small bones left in the meat. Most restaurants avoid serving this because of the image of it being a cheap canned protein to supplement instant noodles in the late of the night, but also because it is a highly labour intensive to prepare. The chef must pin bone this fish after filleting and it a very tedious process for your maximum enjoyment.
In case we haven't convinced you with the gourmet goodness of eating Iwashi, let us tell you about the health and environment goodness of consuming this fish. Iwashi being a silver skinned, fatty fish is loaded with omega-3 and DHAs which are good for lowering cholesterol and risk of heart diseases. If you crave fats, at least eat ones that make you healthier. This fish being a shortlived mass spawner, also has very low levels of mercury compared to apex predators like tuna or swordfish, so even women of reproductive age can safely enjoy these little morsels of ocean flavour. Also because of it's attribute of being shortlived, there is little fishing pressure on wild stocks, so choosing this over a bigger, longer-lived fish, you are also saving the planet's ocean. Most of the time, sardines are used as feed stock to caged reared tunas and there isn't a better time to cut out the middleman or middle-fish, and get your protein direct from source.
We started serving it last week but haven't been recommending it to everyone because it was a small batch to check quality of the fish. We are serious about only giving you the best. Now that we are sure that the fish is fully and truly good for eating do we unleash it upon customers.
