🍱 Shiobiki zushi

Salted sushi, a local delicacy for special occasions, originated in Yonezawa City. It is pressed sushi made from salted salmon, and could be made even in inland Yonezawa City, where fresh fish was not available in the past. The red color of the salmon and the white color of the rice used to make a reddish-white color, and so the dish was prepared for weddings and other celebratory occasions. Yonezawa City is located in a basin surrounded by mountains, and in the days when transportation systems were not well developed, opportunities to eat fresh seafood were rare. Fish was mostly freshwater fish such as carp and river fish, or processed products such as cod, herring, and salted salmon, but it was still a feast. Generally, salted fish is called shiobiki, but in Yonezawa City, shiobiki refers to salted salmon. Salted salmon has long been a familiar foodstuff, and during the year-end and New Year's holidays, many "shinmaki-zak " (salted white salmon) were hung in front of fishmongers' stores as gifts, but the number of such gifts has been decreasing in recent years. In the early Showa period (1926-1989), both "Niimaki Salmon" and beautifully colored "Honben Salmon" were used for sushi, but "Honben Salmon" was very expensive, so "Niimaki Salmon" was generally used. Even in recent years, it has become difficult to obtain domestically produced salmon with just the right amount of oil and saltiness, and foreign salmon with high oil content is also used. In the past, wooden crates were used to make pressed sushi one by one, but nowadays a large mold is sometimes used to cut the pressed pieces. Few of the old-fashioned wooden crates remain in the local area.