🍱 Tennen Hoya no Sunomono

"Hoya" (=Sea Squirt) is called ‘Pineapple in the sea', and is known as a food contains all five tastes; sweetness, sourness, saltiness, "umami" (=savoriness) and bitterness. It also contains plenty of nutrients like taurine, glycogen, zinc, vitamin E or vitamin B12. It is characteristic as well that it gets smelly and harsh taste when it is not fresh. It takes 3~4 years to grow. Its best season is summer, but from December to January, season for bearing eggs, is also great. People are aquafarming sea squirt in Iwate Prefecture, but nature sea squirts live at the bottom of the sea, 20~30m of depth, so the special technique is required to catch them. There is a diving technique called "Nambu Moguri", invented in Hirono Town (old Taneichi Town), located northern Sanriku Coast, more than 100years ago, and the divers used this technique to catch natural sea squirt one by one. That's why natural sea squirt is very precious.