after living in Japan for 14 years and with a dietician for a wife I get to eat quite a lot of it.Some faves of mine:
Saba no kizushi (vinegar marinated raw mackerel)
You want FRESH fish for a start.Can't understate that.
Fillet the fish by cutting off the head and tail and then slicing along the backbone.Remove bones (tweezers?) Leave the skin on!
put the filets in a dish and cover with salt (don't go mad..just enough)
let it sit overnight in the salt in the fridge.
cover with 100cc of rice vinegar and a dash of lemon juice, and four or five Tbsp of sugar (less if desired) let that six for six hours or so until absorbed well by the fish.
remove the fish from the marinade and then slice in 3 mm slices all along the length of the filet.You should end up with little half-moon slivers of fish.
Ready to eat.Delicious!
Okinawan Goya Champur (bitter gourd fry-up)
get some bitter melon and cut it lengthwise.Remove the white pith and seeds and then slice into crescents THINLY (the stuff is bitter)
cover the gourd with salt and let sit (the longer you do that the more bitterness will be removed.After doing so wash the gourd and dry as well as possible with a paper towel.
get some tofu (as firm as possible as you will fry it..tempeh may be ok too) and a can of Spam.Yes..Spam.Also add some nice pork!!!!!
Cut the spam up into 3-4 cm chunks and fry it with the tofu with bean sprouts,a bit of garlic,slivers of carrot etc etc and some soy sauce (try to keep the mix as liquid free as you can..fry in the gourd slices and then finally crack an egg into the mix and scramble that with the mix.
Done..stacks of vitamins and great in summer!
will get back on later with some Japanese fruit liquor recipes.