- Miyagi
We’ve now made it to Miyagi, home to Sendai and a mixture of famous mountain and coastal foods.
1位：牛たん焼き Grilled ox tongue
This is another one in which if you tell a Japanese person you&re going to Sendai, they will immediately say 牛たん！ I had ox tongue in Sendai with a friend when I went a few years ago, and it was easily the best ox tongue I have ever tried. It was absolutely amazing. It came with oxtail soup.
Sendai’s ox-tongue culture began after the war. In about 1948, a chef called Keishiro Sano developed a method of salting thick slices of ox tongue and grilling them over charcoal at the restaurant he ran.
Cuts are made in the tongue to make it easier to bite, and it is matured before being grilled. This produces a smoky exterior and a juicy, springy centre. It is traditionally served with barley rice, oxtail soup, pickles and spicy nanban miso. Although a lot of the tongue is imported, the local preparation makes it a Sendai speciality!
2位：宮城の牡蠣 Miyagi oysters
Miyagi oysters are known for their concentrated flavour, firm body and plump texture. They have been described as rich and creamy, with saltiness and a slight sweetness.
The sheltered bays of the Sanriku coast contain plenty of plankton, helped by nutrients from the forests and the meeting of the Oyashio and Kuroshio currents.
Oyster farming in Matsushima Bay goes back to the 1600s. Miyagi is now Japan’s second-largest producer after Hiroshima and supplies young seed oysters to farms across Japan. During the 1970s, its seed oysters helped revive the French oyster industry.
3位：はらこ飯 Harako-meshi
Harako is a regional word for salmon roe and is said to refer to the children inside a salmon’s belly.
The salmon is simmered in a sweet and savoury mixture with soy sauce, sake and sugar. The rice is then cooked in the resulting stock before being topped with the salmon and ikura. This gives it way more flavour than simply placing salmon and roe on plain rice.
Harako-meshi began as a fishermen’s meal around the mouth of the Abukuma River. According to local tradition, it was once presented to Date Masamune during an inspection of the construction of a canal. Its main season is from September to November, when the salmon return to the area’s rivers.
4位：笹かまぼこ Sasa-kamaboko
Sasa-kamaboko is a grilled white-fish cake shaped like a sasa leaf. It has a mild savoury flavour and a firm, springy texture.
It started during the Meiji period, when large catches of flounder were arriving in Sendai without proper refrigeration. The surplus fish was ground into a paste, then it was shaped and grilled to preserve it.
It was first known by names including “palm kamaboko” and “tongue kamaboko”. The name sasa-kamaboko was later established because of its shape and the Date family’s bamboo-and-sparrow crest. Recent varieties include cheese-filled and smoked versions.
