Mentaiko!

Shin Hatakeyama, a chef who is the manager of Sunrise Mart, the Japanese food market in Manhattan (the one at 494 Broome Street), has made a commitment to importing top-quality, authentic ingredients from Japan. Yesterday he invited Daigo Irifune of Yamaya USA to showcase his company's mentaiko. Daigo was kind enough to talk to me about all things mentaiko:

First of all, what's mentaiko? Sometimes called "spicy cod roe," it's actually spicy pollock eggs. An import from Korea, it became popular in Japan after World War Two. Fukuoka, a big city in the southern island of Kyushu, is the mentaiko capital of Japan. (Kyushu is the closest part of Japan to Korea, so not surprising.). Daigo tells me that there are some three hundred mentaiko producers in the city.

Daigo explained that his mentaiko is produced by marinating pollock eggs in chili, sake, konbu and yuzu citrus, then letting it ferment lightly for several hours. The result is spicy, flavorful roe, tiny in size and red in color. Mentaiko is sold in its natural membrane, pictured above, or in jars, the membrane removed and ready to eat.

How do you use it? The most common way is as a filling for onigiri. But at Sunrise, Daigo offered tastes of mentaiko spaghetti, an extremely popular Japanese-style pasta, crossover dishes marrying Japanese flavors to Italian pasta. (Also called "wafu pasta" -- there are at least two places in New York that specialize in this cooking, Basta Pasta and Pasta Wafu.)

Daigo also told me about another dish, "mentaiko salad," which is composed of mentaiko, wakame seaweed, cucumbers and kuzukiri noodles (translucent arrowroot vermicelli that readily absorb flavors). Sounds tasty. If you try it, please let me know how it comes out!

Posted by Harris Salat in Ingredients | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email | Print

Comments (3)

Can I just spread it on bread like smoked roe? Or does it need to be cooked?

Daniel | Posted 10:25 04 August 2008

Hi Daniel, Hmm... I never thought about spreading it on bread! I think rice or pasta are better pairings. You don't have to cook mentaiko, it's already naturally preserved. Thanks, Harris

Harris Salat | Posted 16:04 04 August 2008

Daniel, For mentaiko-pan (mentaiko-bread), put in a slit on the top of French bread dough and bake it. I beleive the spiced fish eggs are mixed with mayo and they might be added after the bread has baked a bit. It would probably work well with the partially-baked refrigerated bread that is sometimes available. Here's a photo off the web: http://umepontarou.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/frensh-stick-with-mentaiko.jpg Regards, Chris Loew

Chris Loew | Posted 04:11 13 September 2009

Post a Comment

Name

Email Address

URL

Remember personal info?

Comments (You may use HTML tags for style)

Captcha:

Type the characters you see in the picture above.