Salmon Prosciutto

Iwani is a small town on the rugged west coast of Hokkaido. It's a beautiful craggy coast swept by the piercingly cold Siberian winds, jagged rocks peaking out of the snow on the beach.



Just the place if you were looking for someone who perhaps was in the business of producing amazing air dried whole Hokkaido salmon. We were, which is why on this particular blustery morning we were driving along the coast road to meet with such a man. Having no idea other than it's somewhere along the coast road made for an interesting ride but we got there in the end. As we drive slowly along the coast we see a three story frame on the side of the road, the hundreds of salmon swaying in the wind kinda gives it away as the place we're looking for.





One side of the road is the processing shop and the other the drying frame. We're warmly welcomed and given a quick tour of the processing shop. While we were there they were stripping the skin from Hoke that had been cured in rice bran before drying. Some flakes were produced for tasting, the taste is not overly fishy as I had been fearing but salty and with a hint of the cure.





Across the road and it's a slightly worrying climb up some very haphazardly constructed ladders to the goodies.



The first level containing more of the hoke we had just seen being cleaned.



The second and third held the whole salmon, washed in a brine before being left for up to two years. The end result could be likened to prosciutto made from salmon. Mellow salmon flavor highlighted with a salty lick.







Here and there also were thin strips of salmon dried jerky style.



The forth floor was just for the view, if you squinted into the wind you could almost see Russia.
Back into the shop and a look at a few of the other products; cured octopus, monk fish liver pate with miso and a range of smoked fish, all so tasty.





........ is part of a dying art, not many young'uns want to live the life of a coastal salmon preserver when there's big city lights to be seen.



Still while it's around we want to promote and use the products as much as we can. We'll definitely be stocking and using his fish in the summer.

Iwanai, Hokkaido

Went for a bit of a tiki tour today in search of Hokkiado cheese. We found our selves on the western coast of the island in a fishing town called Iwanai. As usual we had no idea about anything so were more than happy to be shown this small eatery. Tacked onto the side of a seafood market the kitchen is no more than a grill a rice cooker and a single burner for a soup pot.



We ordered three of the fishes available to day on a hand written menu on the wall.



All the sets came with the same accompaniments, a bowl of miso, some bright yellow pickled diakon, a bowl of blanched bean sprouts which were then tossed with sesame oil and topped with aonori, a small plate of braised octopus, rice and on each of the fish plates was a seaweed relish and grated diakon.

Salmon belly; lightly glazed and grilled to perfection



Saba; a japanese mackerel, needed a little soy to bring out the flavor



Hoke; firm white fleshed fish lightly glazed



Through to the market



I liked that as the fish was used the woman working just walked through to the market and picked up a couple more pieces. Not much fresher than that.

On the way home we came across this spring near the Konbu spa. The local council has put some plumbing into the ground so people can take advantage of the constant running water.



Filling up our soft drink bottles I could understand why there were people there with dozens of large water vessels filling up, it is delicious, clean and crisp possibly the best water I have ever tried, and the bonus is it's free. How cool is that??