🍱 Kibinago no Hokaburi

In Kochi prefecture, sardines were soaked in vinegar and made into sushi using “okara” (=soy pulp) instead of rice, and this was called “tamazushi” because in Kochi, people refer to okara as “otama”. Okara was used instead of rice because rice was considered a delicacy in the past. Okara is soy pulp which is a by-product of tofu and the people of Kochi made good use of it in this way. “Kibinago no Hokaburi” is a type of tamazushi using the fish “kibinago” (=silver-stripe round herring), which is a small fish measuring to around 10cm in length. The small kibinago is carefully opened by hand and soaked in vinegar and then wrapped around the okara. The cute roundness of the sushi is said to look like the shape of a person's head which is how it got the name “Hokaburi”, meaning a person wearing a washcloth on their head. Sukumo city actively promotes “Kibinago no Hokaburi” as one of their specialties. Kibinago are caught in large amounts in Sukumo Bay and in 1985, the area caught over 3,000 tons of kibinago. The number of fish caught has since decreased but in in the early 1990s, more than 2,000 tons of kibinago were still being caught. Kibinago is still popular today and it is served at local restaurants as sashimi, tempura and “nanbanzuke” (=marinade of sweet and peppery vegetable sauce). In Shimanto city and surrounding areas, sardines are used instead of kibinago, and the dish is called “rokuyata”.