🍱 Nama Shirasu-don (Raw Baby Anchovy Bowl)

Shirasu are the 1-2 month old young of Japanese anchovy and Japanese pilchard, and Shizuoka Prefecture boasts the largest catch of shirasu in Japan. Suruga Bay is one of the most productive fishing grounds in Japan with a large amount of plankton, and the shirasu are caught by boat seine fishing from the end of March to mid-January. Fresh shirasu can be enjoyed as "nama-shirasu" (raw shirasu), and processed products such as "kama-age-shirasu" (boiled in a pot), "shirasu-boshi" (dried shirasu), "chirimen" (dried shirasu), and " tatami-iwashi" (dried shirasu stretched into a thin sheet like seaweed) are also well known.