Hiroo Nagahara demo of Japanese aquaculture-raised fish
Japan had a powerful presence at the 2024 Winter Fancy Food Show, including a large booth offering examples of Japanese aquaculture for tasting. The highlight of my experience was a 90 minute demo by Chef Hiroo Nagahara, a renowned kaiseki master. He was born in Japan but has spent most of his life in the US and is fluent in American tropes with a bit of a David Chang potty-mouth.
Sashimi made with tai and scallops.
In the demo, chef prepared three dishes of which we got to taste one, a sublime sashimi with Miyagi scallops (more on that in a moment) and tai, a “good luck” fish which is often presented to new restaurants by their fish supplier upon opening and also is a gift at weddings. The prep included white soy sauce (which tastes like “regular” soy sauce of high quality but is clear) and a variety of veggie accents. Chef noted he places a kombu plank on top of the prepared tai fillet to add umami through a 30 minute infusion.
The second dish was a tempura made with amadai, also called red tilefish. He shared that his tempura batter is 2 parts AP flour, 1 part cornstarch, with zata’ar as a seasoning, and beer (light not IPA or stout) as the liquid. Mix to a nappe texture or to coat a spoon and chill until use. Amadai has scales which stand up when you pour hot oil on them so he holds the fish fillet in a sieve over the cooking oil and ladles oil over it to get this effect, then dips the other side only in batter before frying. This was served with artichoke slices prepared by removing choke and outside leaves then slicing the artichoke top to bottom into sections that look like a giant fish hook; these are treated with ascorbic acid (assume you could use citric acid?) so they don’t discolor before frying. The dipping sauce for these was made from soy, dashi and mirin thickened with arrowroot.
Shabu Shabu had the liquid poured over, vs immersing ingredients.
The third demo dish was a shabu shabu featuring buri, a fish that is the mature form (after hamachi) of yellowtail. Rather than leaving the ingredients in the boiling liquid he dunks them for a few seconds or a minute then reserves and repeats with another ingredient, then plates the dish and pours over a little of the poaching stock. The buri had a citrus taste that was not accidental; in Japanese aquaculture the fish are fed tangerines which make the fish last longer after harvesting while influencing the taste.
Your proprietor with kaiseki chef Hiroo Nagahara.
Most of these specialty seafoods were available for tasting at the Japan pavilion, where we also enjoyed abalone in the shell, uni and Hokkaido scallops (so we could compare them to Miyagi). There was a significant language barrier and I realized during Chef Hiroo’s demo that most of them represented products of the very tightly regulated Japanese aquaculture industry. Miyagi scallops, for example, are grown through aquaculture while Hokkaido scallops are harvested from the ocean floor; flavors were slightly different but both were delicious. All the other fish I tried were superb in flavor and texture and if this is the best sustainable and regulated (vs dumping antibiotics into the open sea as is done at many shrimp and salmon plants) aquaculture can do then I’m a fan.
Hiroo had lots of wonderful side talk and trucs; he’s worked in many prestigious kitchens and also trained as a physicist which helps him to understand how foods are altered by heat and ingredients. Umami ideas: drop an anchovy in your carrot puree. Add soy to balsamic vinaigrette. Put a piece of kombu in chicken stock.
His favorite comfort food? Oreos. In Japan, dorayaki bean cakes. There are many variations and his favorite comes from a bakery in Osaka. Favorite food his mother made? Japanese-style curry. Favorite rice variety? Golden Wind; the grains are shiny when they come out. (This product seems to be unavailable in the U.S.) His own perspective on Japanese aquaculture: we farm beef, pork and chicken so why not fish?
