Kofu City

Cooked abalone shellfish

Abalone shellfish is a specialty of Yamanashi Prefecture. There are various theories as to why abalone, a seafood, became a specialty in an inland area surrounded by mountains and not facing the sea. One of them is that it was not easy to transport abundant seafood from the neighboring Suruga Bay (Shizuoka Prefecture) across mountains without transportation and refrigeration facilities as is the case today, and only a few salted or dried fish were delivered. In the Edo period, fresh abalone from Suruga Bay was processed, marinated in soy sauce, and packed in wooden casks for transportation. There is also a theory that Shingen Takeda, noting the nutritional value of abalone, invented abalone as a campaign food. Compared to raw abalone, boiled abalone contains more glutamic acid and aspartic acid, which increases its flavor, and this may be the reason why it became a specialty of inland regions.

Today, abalone is valued as a gift.

Slice the cooked shellfish into thin slices, cut the liver into small bite-sized pieces, and serve with shiso and thinly sliced cucumber. The liver can be grated and topped with a mayonnaise sauce. It can also be served with lemon juice, carpaccio, or salad. No matter how it is cooked, the flavor of the cooked shellfish is brought out, and it is said to go well with wine, beer, and sake.

Of the 176 local foods "foods of Yamanashi" that Yamanashi Prefecture is working to pass on to the next generation, 47 are selected as "specially selected foods of Yamanashi". There are many food vendors in the prefecture that produce and sell the food, not only in stores but also by mail order. There are a variety of products available for sale, from large, firm, and affordable ones to smaller ones, as well as those processed from the boiled wadding.