🍱 Kanpyo-maki
Kanpyo-maki is a type of sushi roll that is made by boiling kanpyo in water to give it a sweet-salty flavor and then wrapping it with vinegared rice and seaweed. Kanpyo-maki is an indispensable dish as a standard item in Edomae-sushi. Kanpyo is a kind of dried food―thin strips of gourd pulp dried in the sun. Back then, the phrase 'norimaki' referred to 'kanpyo-maki,' and norimaki was generally wrapped in the shape of the Japanese letter 'no' regardless of being thin or thick, and it was one of the highlights of the professionals' skill in rolling up the core ingredients so that they would not get loose. Also, roasted nori (roasted seaweed) is essential for kanpyo rolls. Nori is a type of seaweed that has been eaten with shellfish since ancient times in Japan, and during the Edo period, nori farming became popular in the area from present-day Shinagawa to Omori, where the sheet forming method by rinsing it like paper took root. At that time, Asakusa had a paper manufacturing industry that produced handmade recycled paper called “Asakusa-gami,” and the roasted seaweed of the Edo period came to be called “Asakusa-nori,” taking inspiration from that manufacturing method. Thanks to aquaculture, even ordinary people could obtain roasted nori, and in the Taisho period, people began to make norimaki at home. While everyone has eaten kanpyo-maki as a sushi dish in the Kanto region, it is still unfamiliar even today in the Kansai region as futo-maki is the mainstream there. Kanpyo-maki can be said to be a chic food unique to Edomae.