Autumn Most Famous Food : Grilled Sanma Fish at restaurant Gen

In Japan, every season is strongly bound with food habits.

Tangerines in winter, watermelon in summer, sakura-flavored things in spring for example.

Autumn is synonymous to chestnuts, pumpkins or persimmons for vegetables and fruits, but for fish, the most famous one is “sanma”, especially grilled.

It’s so symbolic that there’s even a “Sanma festival” in many areas like Meguro in Tokyo, just to eat grilled fish.

Sanma could also be eaten as a sashimi, but it is most commonly eaten grilled.

The fish can be found in northern Japan, like Hokkaido, where the sea temperature is cold.

More about sanma in Indonesian:

http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauri_pasifik

The best way to eat sanma is to ask for grilled sanma, if possible grilled on charcoal.

You can have charcoal grilled sanma in a restaurant chain called Gen.

Gen is specialized in “family food”, you’ll find the same menu that could be eaten in a typical Japanese family.

Utensils and plates also look like they are coming right from a normal family.

(I’m happy there are normal chopsticks, it’s more ecological than disposable ones)

So here is the menu:

There are plenty of seasonal foods, with a lot of vegetables.

Since it’s autumn, the fried oysters are back too.

Soy sauce and black sesame with salt to put on rice.

Let’s eat sanma!

The fish is served entirely, with guts inside (some people eat them, some not since they may taste bitter).

You can see that a lot of delicious fat from the sanma is splashing out on to the plate.

The fish is served with lemon and grated radish (daikon).

You can ask for normal rice or mix-grain rice, also for a small, normal or large portion.

Here is the small size with purple and white rice.

 


Then eat hot grilled fish, topped with refreshing radish.

 

This is the best in autumn!

It was really delicious!

 

As sanma gets really cheap during this time, I’ll try to buy some at the supermarket next time.

Have you ever tasted sanma?
Do you want to taste it if you come to Japan?

 

This time, I went to the restaurant in Nakano Sakaue.
There are others around Nakano district or Suginami district in Tokyo as well.

Site :
http://www.gen-nakano.jp/

Map :