YEAR OLD SUSHI EATING CHALLENGE
Created and produced by John Daub
ONLY in JAPAN
Good morning from Otsu city in Shiga prefecture
This is Ishiyama Station
and I’ve come here for something a lot stronger
than day old sushi
something that I would have eaten anyway
This - is year old sushi
It's a local delicacy of Shiga prefecture
a lot of my Japanese friends have told me the horrors
of it’s smell and how strong it tastes
and how I won't be able to stand it
And they might be right
but I’m going to give it a try anyway
It’s called FUNAZUSHI
and can be found in Shiga prefecture
located in the center of the country
wrapped around Lake Biwa
Japan’s fish water lake
Otsu is at the bottom of the lake
just a 10 minute train ride from Kyoto Station
The lake is big and beautiful.
Shiga prefecture wrap around it
Being close to Kyoto means Otsu has got a ton of ancient temples,
Ishiyama-dera is one of them
featured in THE TALE of GENJI written in the year 1008.
Also featured in the Hiroshige's ukiyo-e print titled
AUTUMN MOON AT ISHIYAMA overlooking Lake Biwa.
And Near Ishiyama-dera temple is this store called SHISEI AN
which makes traditional funazushi.
I met the chef at the door!
KANTA INOUE
He’s only 24 years old and already a master at the craft,
making Funazushi since he was 13.
On the side of the store are buckets full of fermenting NIGORO BUNA fish.
You can preserve the fish for up to few years
but one year is enough.
He carts a full bucket into the store to open.
One the biggest questions marks I had was –
how bad does it smell?
How is it? Me too. No idea!
Funazushi is infamous as being one of the stinkiest foods in Japan.
The smell?
It was strong but not overpowering.
No problem!
It doesn’t stink, does it?
Not really. Not much at all.
That's really strange!
Inoue-san dug deep into the bucket to find a good one.
The fermented rice has turned to pulp,
the lactic acid bacteria helping to preserve the fish.
It looks gross and may even smell a little questionable for food,
but there’s a lot of good stuff in this sushi.
Nigoro Buna or white crucian carp has soft bones and preserves well in this method,
locked fermenting under the weight of a stone for a year.
Eyes and mouth
So ー how is Funazushi made?
The fish are caught in season before laying eggs.
The secret to keeping the smell down is to scrub and clean the fish well,
removing all scales.
Nigoro Buna’s scales are easy to remove compared to many other fish.
When cleaned and rinsed,
Inoue-san brings the fish outside to prepare the fermentation process.
The Nigoro Buna are ready for the next step.
In the bucket, a base of rice is added.
Inoue-san then stuffs the rice in the head of the fish.
This will create lactic acid bacteria
considered a good bacteria
that will preserve the fish.
Close it up here.
It’s just like that.
He adds another layer of rice to the prepared fish.
You can put more fish on top
With more layers, it gradually gets higher
One year in there?
Yes.
A year later, it’s ready to be eaten.
Here’s the year old fish Inoue-san has selected
for my eating challenge today.
In the kitchen, he cuts it thin
It packs a strong kick so a little goes a long way.
That spark of orange are fish eggs
which adds color to the dish.
The bones have softened and the fish’s meat has been preserved well.
Inoue-san even made a mini nigiri sushi for me -
raw fish on rice like this.
A little garnish and the plate is now complete.
THE YEAR OLD
FUNAZUSHI
EATING CHALLENGE
Is unrefrigerated sushi safe to eat a year later?
Man vs food
Inoue-san brings out the tray of year old sushi.
The contents are confirmed.
This is Shiga Precture’s famous FUNAZUSHI
Right here:
The usually way Funazushi is prepared
Near by:
An unusual miniature nigiri style sushi
and at the end ー
Nigoro Buna preserved one year in a barrel,
still smoothered in fermented salty rice.
One year in there
ONE YEAR
Total one year
Once again, my thoughts go back to how normal sushi is throw out
after sitting out for only a day
but this has been around for an entire year,
4 seasons!
52 weeks!
The taste doesn’t hit you right away so –
wait for it.
Wait for it.
There it is.
It’s a little sour.
I take that back!
It’s freaking sour!
I have some sake here.
I’d love some. Please!
Kanpai!
It’s really good with sake
It really is.
Funazushi is really sour!
It seems when you drink sake
that sour taste decreases little by little
Sake goes well with it, does it?
Yeah
I’m pretty surprised because
my image before I started
before my quest to eat the funazushi was that
I was going to absolutely hate it
and it was going to be something that ー
was too strong for me to handle
Yeah! It’s strong!
It really is, but ー
It’s not as strong as I thought it would be
my expectations for the strength of Funazushi was
way high so ー
the first time you eat Funazushi I think
there is an initial shock because
you’ve never had this flavor before
it’s not an easy flavour to describe
It’s very sour, like cheese.
Like sour cheese or ー
like the saltiness of blue cheese
That’s right
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Kind of like a blue cheese sourness
to it. Maybe like yogurt
that’s a couple days to old.
Something like this. But it’s not ...
It’s not bad!
It might be sour but ー
Depending on the maker,
it can be even more sour!
Smell even stronger.
Normally, no one eats it like this.
That’s right. Not like this.
It’s a “John Special“
Yes. Yes. Yes :)
Thank you! haha
That’s raises the question
What is sushi?
There are generally two categories of sushi:
Haya-zushi (or fast sushi)
and Nare-zushi, the ancient form originating in SE Asia.
Nigiri Sushi, a type of Hayasushi,
a slice of raw fish on vinegar rice
is what I know well
Like this one!
But Nigiri Sushi didn’t come about until the early 1800’s
– it could be made quickly and enjoyed with rice,
a sort of fast food –
while Nerasushi dates back about 1000 years,
funazushi a type of that ancient variety,
fermented for a year, the rice a preserving agent -
and still made in the traditional way around Lake Biwa
and Shiga prefecture.
So this is ancient cuisine,
a historically important food for Japan
A dish to be respected
It came from S Asia and China
together with rice
and the culture of Narezushi which you ferment it
they existed all around Japan
using products from the sea
Hokkaido had Izushi type
But why would Funazushi be so popular?
The value was high
The reason is the water of Lake Biwa
and the Nigoro Buna fish from this lake
and the tasty Omi-mai (rice) from Shiga Prefecture
the beautiful water of Biwako
I believe these are the three reasons why
Funazaushi became popular
How did you hear about Funazushi & any health benefits?
What I heard from mu grandmother was that
there were a lot of fish called “Nigoro Funa”
They only live in Lake Biwa
caught only here
and it’s great for Funazushi
Sift bones and the scales come off easily
That is why Funazushi can mature in a year
The fish could be caught anywhere in the lake
Literally lying around in the water
That - and the skill for making Funazushi
and since there was no refrigeration back then
they would press a heavy stone on the rice
and when you compress it like you saw before,
the air can’t get in and
it can last up to one to two years,
That’s how I believe Funazushi spread out
around Shiga prefecture as a preserved food
They didn’t have refrigerators a long time ago
That's right
They used rice instead of a refrigerator
Eating it, when you caught a cold, you got well
When you had a stomachache, it worked since
it’s made through Lactic Acid Fermentation.
So there you have it! The legend of Funazushi
Yeah, this is a local delicacy of Shiga Prefecture
it is fermented ー but I have to tell you something
It’s not that bad!
Only 10 minutes from Kyoto lies the origins of sushi
ANCIENT FOOD!
and an eating challenge
How string is Funazushi?
You’ll have to visit Shiga Prefecture to try for yourself
Year old sushi ー you’ve been challenged!
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Mata ne~