Japanese foods--hoshimono

[torakris]

In line with today's daily nihongo word,

what are some of your favorite Japanese hoshimono?

[margaret]

From what I can tell, hoshimono seem to most often be fish. The hoshimono I mostly eat tend to be seaweed.

In the winter nothing beats tororo kombu (dried vinegared kombu seaweed, very thin) dropped into a steaming bowl of udon or left to melt over a bowl of hot rice. And there's a snack whose name escapes me now that I also really like - dried kombu that's been cut into small rectangles and vinegared, kind of melts in the mouth.

Also, fu, or dried wheat gluten, in miso shiru. Does this count?

[torakris]

the vinegared konbu you are referring to is called su-konbu (vinegared-konbu), this is great stuff, i like the umeboshi flavored ones too!

My favorite hoshimono (also called himono, especially when talking about fish) are the fish!

Ayu (sweetfish) is the best but can be pricey, so for everyday eating we stick with aji (horse mackeral) and hokke (?).

I also loved dried shiitake and my friend makes the best otsumami (snacks for drinking)from dried squid with a kojuchang sauce. I am slowly learning to appreciate dried daikon, but I find it quite bland (it does take to kimchi seasonings well! )

[torakris]

Here are some pictures of the fish:

http://members.aol.com/uoyoshi/himono.html

[smallworld]

I like hokke a lot, but it's not always good. I have no idea how to identify good hokke, but I always keep trying.

I also like mirin-zuke (also sometime called mirin-boshi, which is also the name of small dried fish snacks), which is himono that has been brushed with a marinade of mirin, soy sauce and sesame seeds (I think) before being dried. Aji and sanma are my usual choices, I've tried saba this way but it was just too rich.

[SG-]

How do you prepare the dried / semi dried butterflied vacumm packed fishes I find in my local Japanese and Korean supermarkets? And I'm not talking about tiny anchovies or shishamo but large fishes about 6 - 12" long.

Also what are they called in Japanese?

[smallworld]

Sounds like 'himono'. Just grill it, and if it's fatty serve it with a little mound of grated daikon on the side (and or grated ginger). Both the fish and the daikon can be sprinkled with soy sauce if needed.

[SG-]

Thanks! Is grilling the only way to serve them also when are they usually served ? meals with rice? What is a good fish to try?

Edited July 19, 2003 by SG- (log)

[torakris]

Thanks! Is grilling the only way to serve them also when are they usually served ? meals with rice? What is a good fish to try?

If they are in the refrigerated/freezer section they are most likely himono.

Grilling is really the only way they are served, though you can grill them and pull out the meat to use in things.

I like the meat in onigiri (rice balls) with shiso and sesame seeds, you can also use it in other rice dishes or salads.

One of the most common ones is aji (horse mackeral), the smaller the better, the small ones can be eaten head to tail, bones and all. A really wonderful one is ayu (sweetfish) and I like hokke (don't know the English) because it is huge and has lots of meat. Hokke is especially good with grated daikon and soy.

[torakris]

her is a picture of a mirin-boshi (mirin zuke) we had the other night,

this was fugu:

[torakris]

I just saw some hoshi-imo yesterday, dried strips of sweet potato.

Fall is officially here!

[helenjp]

Hoshi-imo!! My son's all-out favorite snack!

Hoshimono in general don't seem to be great favorites with men and children -- maybe it's my cooking skills, but I've given up trying to serve them dried daikon. I'm the only one who likes stuff like tororo-konbu or koya-dofu, maybe because I lived in Kansai for a while.

Can't say I have any passion for zuiki (those dried strips of sato-imo stalk). I saw some dried hime-chiku (the skinny kind of bamboo shoot) once which were good in nimono and takikomi-gohan).

Maybe my favorite is extra-long hijiki. A friend who comes from Kujukuri-ga-hama on the Boso peninsula often brings me back a bag of wonderful hijiki. When it's as well-developed as this, it is nice to cook with aburage and pork. The small kind I prefer with mini-tomatoes and a mustardy vinaigrette dressing!

Regards

[torakris]

On our way home from Hakone we stopped in Odawara and picked up some semi dried fish.

Kinmedai and aji

Odawara is very famous for their himono (semi-dried) fish and I don't think I have ever been ablr to resist stopping in at least one (of the hundreds) of the shops lining the main road.

I also picked up some hoshi-imo (semi dried sweet potato) which is a favorite snack of my children.

[Salli Vates]

I just picked up a bunch of hoshi imo at Sunrise Mart. I've been waiting for these delicious treats to come in for weeks, calling Katagiri, Maruma, JAS etc.