Ginrin

The Ise-Shima peninsula on the Pacific Ocean is a beautiful rural area where exploitation of sea resources is a major activity. Oysters are grown in large mollusk farms, and the sea is rich of local fish varieties, especially bonito or katsuo in Japanese. The latter is mainly known in the form of katsuobushi dried and fermented bonito flakes, used as taste enhancer of the umami taste in Japanese cuisine, but the people living on the coastline eat katsuo raw as sashimi or as sushi 🍣.

The bonito’s delicious red flesh is fragile and must be prepared quickly after the fish is caught. Shima area’s fishermen thus created a chirashi-zushi that is easy to cook on their fishing boat, without the need of specific tool. The tekone sushi (てこね寿司), a word that can be translated as "sushi mixed by hand", is served in a bowl with a vinegared rice base topped with bonito slices that have been slightly marinated.

Over time, this simple and delicious dish has become a renowned local specialty of Ise-Shima and a staple menu in many sushi restaurants of the area, such as Ginrin, a restaurant located near Shima City Hall. It has about 30 seats arranged at the counter and in a traditional room, that is to say an elevated tatami floor furnished with coffee tables to kneel in the seiza position or sit cross-legged.

A good address for a lunch on a weekday, it serves a traditional Japanese cuisine based on fish and seafood, raw or cooked, paired with various ingredients (vegetables, seaweed) that are also local and fresh. The variations of the classic menu, available in omakase or bento 🍱 versions, allow to try several small dishes that change following the season, like:

• Sushis;
• Sashimi set;
• Seasonal vegetable salad;
• Miso soup;
• Marinated condiments;
• Tempura fritters; and,
• The famous tekone-zushi.

Ginrin has a wide array of drinks to choose from and pair with the dishes, including a range of Japanese sake 🍶 nihonshu. In the evening, the ambiance of the restaurant resembles an izakaya pub.

Excessive drinking put your health at risk. Alcoholic beverages should be consumed in moderation.

An easy chirashi recipe to make at home

Those who don’t have the opportunity to visit Shima city can still cook their own tekone sushi at home. The recipe is indeed easy to make and to adapt even outside Japan. To make this local chirashi you’ll need to:

For the rice base:

1. Steam Japanese rice in a rice cooker or in a cooking pot;
2. Season it with sushi rice vinegar and let it cool down.

For the topping:

1. Slice some red meat fish (bonito or a similar tuna fish variety);
2. Place the sashimi raw slices in a marinade made with shoyu soy sauce, mirin (cooking sake) and a few drops of lemon juice;
3. Let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Once the bowl is ready, add to your taste: chopped nori seaweed, marinated or fresh ginger, sesame seeds or a shiso leave. The tekone sushi is now ready to eat; enjoy, itadakimasu!