Weak Fish - 鰯 (iwashi)

Weak Fish - I am again talking about Kanji (Chinese character)  but this time, of sardine. This kanji is just one character and consists of "fish" on the left and "weak" on the right. Most of Kanji referring to fish usually consists of "fish" on the left and something on the right.

For example,

鱈 - cod (fish +snow)
鯖 - mackerel (fish + blue)
鮫 - shark (fish + cross)
鮭 - salmon (fish + triangle tipped decorative ornament - I didn't know the meaning until now) 

As for sardine, I have heard people saying this kanji of 鰯 (iwashi) represents what sardines are very well - because the fish is very fragile and gets rotten quickly (e.g. weak.) And I agree. While chopping the head off and removing guts out, I take extra care so that I don't have to remove meat as well with my finger. I also try to cook as quickly as possible.

I like sardines not just because of its taste but also because of the price. It is very cheap.

In Japan, we "sort of" celebrate 3rd of February as a lunar new year as a tradition. This is called "Setsubun". There are a couple of rituals for Setsubun and one of them was to hang the head of sardine at the door step to deter any evil to come into house. Some explanations are because the head looks scary or sardines are too smelly (even for evils) to come inside the house.

Last February I decided to do something for Setsubun. Hanging a sardine head at the door step is too gross and consequences can be even more scary I decided not to do it. Instead, I decided to eat grilled sardine.

It was as tasty as it looks but while cooking just one sardine in the oven, quite a lot of smoke also came out. In the beginning of February in cold London, I had to leave the window opened for a couple of hours, freezing. The room still smelled like fish after that though. Good thing is probably evils had been smoked away but I will never do it again especially in cold winter.



I went to Borough Market to get some Daikon (Mooli) on one weekend. I thought it was a good opportunity to stop by a fishery and get some sardines for other type of cooking (definitely not grilling.)

Waiting for my turn while other customers buying a lot of fish, most of them were spending about £30 or more, I started feeling sorry for my small shopping because I was only going to buy 2 sardines. Last time I bought one sardine at Waitrose, it was only 43p...

Then my turn came. A macho looking shop clerk came to me saying,"what do you like?"

"Could I have two sardines, please?" I said it loudly, almost shouting.

He then stirred his look on the shelf in front of him and I knew that sardines were sitting right in front of him and when I nearly pointed at a sardine box for him, he turned around and talked to the other shop clerk and said something to him. He then went to the other customer. What about me!? Should I be sorry for small shopping!? 

Now the other guy came around to me saying, "what do you like?" 

"Could I have two sardines, please?" again.

He also stirred his look around the shelf in front of him trying to find the sardine box which was sitting right in front of him (again!) This time I succeeded to point at the sardine box. He picked up two good looking sardines and nicely wrapped into a bag and said, "£1.20, ok?"

"Yeah, OK. Thanks."

Although feeling a bit sorry for spending only £1.20 at the fishery when everyone else is spending £30 to £40 on average, I still couldn't help comparing the price between Waitrose and the market.

£1.20 for two sardines at the market means 60p per sardine. Waitrose sardine was 43p. Let's make it to 50p per sardine for easier calculation. The market sardine is in fact 20% more expensive than Waitrose.

I am usually quite bad at math but this time something kicked into my head and my calculation was quick. "They'd better be super good sardines... " I was thinking on my way home.

I simmered sardines with pickled plum (umeboshi). It was a bit of failure because when I cooked the same dish long time ago, bones were cooked so soft enough to eat. Unfortunately it didn't happen this time. It was still good but with a little bit of disappointment. Oh well, next time (probably from Waitrose.)

Rice in front is mame gohan (pea rice). This was well done. Yoku dekita!