Blue fish for blue Japanese lunch

Today, I’m eating イワシの塩焼き iwashi no shioyaki , salt grilled sardines. It’s a cheap local fish that brings a good amount of healthy fats. And it’s very tasty.

Simple : clean the fish. Sprinkle a little sea salt. Place on a grill and grill.

Rice of course.

Natto, today with mustard and a few flowers.

A stir-fry of bean sprouts and kikuna greens.

Miso soup. On the side, it’s oboro kombu, it’s made of seaweeds.

When you put it in the soup it becomes like that in a few seconds.

It is also used to wrap sushi.

Well that was another tasty Japanese lunch.

Shio-yaki iwashi. With 2 sardines…

Sardine is an ordinary fish, but it’s very tasty. We get fresh ones easily and cheaply.

Shio-yaki iwashi. Salt grilled sardines, the Japanese style. I just empty them, clean, sprinkle salt and grill 5 minutes. Served with greens.
5 minutes for the sides :

Reheated Hatsuga genmai, sprouted rice.

Veggie stir-fry… all what I had left.

A quick soup : togan (Winter melon) cooked with carrot and seasoned with soy sauce.

The meal !

Grilled sardine lunch

Today’s lunch. Fish and pasta. You have surely read a lot about the healthy fat of sardine. But the truth is even if they were junk food I would eat them because that’s one of my favorite fish. I find them delicious.

Shioyaki iwashi. Salt-grilled sardines.

Crudités.

Pasta with boiled greens : peas and spinach.

Only powders to flavor the dish : nutty ground sesame, crunchy sea salt, and hot shichimi togarashi (7 spice mix).

The meal (with 4 sardines) :
Cal 657 F20.3g C75.2g P56.0g

The head up toward Spring. Rishun, the day after Setsubun, old Japanese Spring day

Setsubun iwashi. Spring sardine.

I said I had holly in the post about Setsubun Spring Festival tradition… well, it’s not normal Xmas holly.
hiiragi is a sort of osmanthus.
I showed you the fragrant flowers before. That was not exactly the same tree.

post about osmanthus

So it seems the belief is this branch (with its cutting leaves) and the head of a sardine (for the smell) can scare away the oni (devils) that visit on Setsubun (Feb 3rd).

Also the fish head is leaning up to the rising Spring…
That was salted sardine that I simply grilled. Oh, they had not emptied before salting it, so yep, that smelled seriously. Devils all left my flat, my building, the street…

To “rinse” the mouth romanesco cauliflower and some sprouts.

November market day

A lunch made with the super bargains at the shotengai (shopping street). Season local produce rule.

And the season is oscillating between Summer and Autumn… It’s a long hesitation this year.
For 1 coin, 100 yen (about 1 euro, 1 US dollar…), you can get :

A whole kabocha pumpkin.
Or :

6 aubergines, to make brinjal chutney (click here).
Or :

3 or 4 yuzu.
Or :

A dozen of fresh sardines.
I got all that, and I have for more than a meal. So let’s go.

It’s easy to make shio-yaki, Japanese style grilled fish. Empty, head off and clean the sardines.
Put them wet on a grill. Sprinkle a little natural sea salt. And grill about 5 minutes (I put them in the oven toaster).