Iwaki City

Pacific saury

Iwaki City has seven beaches, called "Iwaki Nanahama," and there are many fishing ports around them. A wide variety of fish and shellfish are landed throughout the year, but saury is especially popular in the fall. Many local dishes are prepared using saury, including mirin-boshi (dried fish with mirin broth), grilled fish, and nanbanzuke (pickled saury), but the most commonly eaten dish is "po-po yaki" (grilled saury with pork belly). The most commonly eaten dish is "Po-Po-Yaki," in which saury is minced, rolled up like a hamburger steak, and grilled. It is said that this dish got its name from the fact that when saury is grilled over charcoal, the oil from the saury causes the fire to blaze up into a roaring roar.

Originally, it was a popular dish for fishermen to eat on their boats. Fresh saury is caught in the fall, so it is chopped and cooked on board while it is still fresh.

Chop the prepared saury with a knife, add miso, ginger, chopped green onion, and potato starch, and roll into a ball. Bake in an oven or frying pan until browned and done.

In Iwaki City, products made with ingenuity by various processors are sold as frozen foods at supermarkets and as prepared foods at stores specializing in marine products. In addition, Iwaki City holds cooking classes to teach how to make po-por-yaki saury, and it is also served as a school lunch menu item at elementary schools. Efforts to pass on the tradition are being actively undertaken.