"Eating without eating" is the basic requirement of Japanese cuisine for ingredients and dishes. Japan's land is long and narrow from north to south, with four distinct seasons. The passage of the Kuroshio (warm current) and Oyashio (cold current) has brought varieties to Japan that change with the four seasons.

Variety of seafood.

Many factors can determine the timing of aquatic production, such as spawning season, temperature, etc.

The spawning season is the biggest factor that determines the fish season.

Fish before spawning eat a lot to replenish energy, and the fish meat will be fatter, while fish during and after spawning will have slightly poorer meat quality.

However, this is only a general rule and will vary according to the type of fish and the location in time and space. Moreover, with the development of the current breeding industry and logistics, the concept of ten days has actually been reduced.

However, Xun has always been a symbol of human beings’ understanding of natural changes. Enjoying seafood from different rivers in different seasons is also the fun of a Japanese food tour.

In addition to the aforementioned horse mackerel and ayu in summer, and tuna, amberjack, flounder, pufferfish and crab in autumn and winter, what other seafood can we eat in different seasons?

In the spring, you can taste red sea bream, large taki fish, needle fish, and bonito.

Sea bream is a popular star on the spring menu, and there is even a saying that "the cherry blossoms are among the flowers, and the sea bream is among the fish."

Every year at the end of winter, sea bream begin to eat heavily in preparation for spawning.

Therefore, in the spring when the cherry blossoms are in full bloom, the oil of the red sea bream is the richest, and the color of the skin is like bright cherry pink. It is called "Sakura sea bream" and is named after the natural sea bream in the Seto Inland Sea, especially Akashi in Hyogo Prefecture and Naruto in Tokushima Prefecture.

Fish is top quality.

Sakura sea bream has a sweet taste and elastic meat. It can be made into sashimi, sushi or sea bream rice.

In order to maintain this fleeting taste, most of the sea bream on the Japanese market is slaughtered alive.

When slaughtering, cooks use live-animation techniques to deliberately destroy the nerves of the fish to delay the time it takes for the fish to become stiff.

Compared with the red sea bream, the Otaki six-line fish looks ordinary, but its name is impressive.

Otaki six-line fish live in shallow seas all over Japan and are widely distributed. They are in season starting in spring.

Its fish meat is shiny, very smooth, rich in oil but very elastic, and has an excellent taste.

Because it tastes the same as ayu, the Japanese named the Otaki six-line fish Natsumi.

Unlike cherry sea bream, which quickly declines in summer, Otaki six-line fish in mid-summer also tastes good.

When diners taste Otaki squid in summer, will they remember the scene of enjoying gluttonous rice and viewing cherry blossoms in spring?

Needlefish are graceful and slender, and are available in large quantities in spring. A blue line can be seen on the flesh of the fish.

The flesh of needlefish has the freshness of herring but a slightly bitter aftertaste. It is very attractive and is a staple in sushi restaurants during the season.

Although bonito is better known as a raw material for bonito flakes and supports the taste of Japanese dashi soup, it tastes just as good if eaten directly.

Following ocean currents, bonito migrate between tropical and temperate zones.

The bonito that goes north every year in late spring and early summer is called bonito. Although it is not as fat as the bonito that goes south in autumn, markets and diners prefer bonito. The love for bonito has become a unique culture of Edo-mae.

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By the way, bonito is easily spoiled, so its freshness is particularly important when used as sushi ingredients or sashimi.

As for summer, don’t miss the sardines and sardines.

Shinko are newly born fish fry. When used as sushi ingredients, newko must be pickled with salt and vinegar. Because they are too small, several fish are needed to hold a single sushi.

Whether Shinko is provided and the processing level of Shinko can reflect the cooking skills of the sushi restaurant.

Sardines taste best during the rainy season.

It is extremely difficult to keep sardines fresh. In an era when refrigeration technology was not developed, they could only be eaten raw in the place of origin.

Even now, let alone overnight, if the sardines cut open in the morning are not stored carefully, they will not be used again by dinner.

In autumn and winter, no matter whether it is saury, mackerel, cod or northern clam, you can’t miss any one of them.

As the name suggests, saury is in season in autumn. When used as sushi ingredients and sashimi, it is seasonal; when used as grilled fish, it can be eaten all year round.

Every autumn, when the first wave of saury is released in Kushiro, Hokkaido, it attracts market attention.

Mackerel is commonly known as mackerel. When used as a sushi ingredient and sashimi, it is mostly pickled in vinegar. Only a few chefs recommend eating it raw without pickling. It is a common ingredient for boiled and grilled fish.

Cod meat has a bland taste when eaten raw, and is more often used in hot pots, stews and made into dried fish.

There are many ways to cook cod offal, and it can be made into almost any dish.

For example, dishes cooked with offal are local dishes from Tohoku Yamagata, Aomori and other places.

The cod sperm vesicles are only available in autumn and winter and are very delicious.

Hokkaido scallops are produced in Tohoku, Hokkaido and other regions of Japan, and are mostly distributed chilled. The flavor is especially strong in winter and is known as one of Hokkaido's "winter tastes".

In addition, Hokkaido scallops are also produced in North America and other places, but after the scallops are caught locally, the meat is cooked immediately, frozen and exported, and the price is very cheap.

To distinguish them from the Hokki scallops produced in Japan, frozen scallops from North America are called "Arctic scallops" and will not appear in high-end restaurants.

When you encounter a variety of seasonal seafood in a Japanese restaurant, you may be excited about the taste of seasonal ingredients, or you may feel sad that some ingredients will only be available again at the same time next year.