Sanma (Pacific Saury) is a skinny, long, silvery fish, almost like a sword. And, it's name in Japanese literally says "Fall, Sword, Fish" 秋刀魚.
Shinji brought this home the other day from the market. He was so impressed with the packaging, each individual sanma has a plastic wrap, just wide enough to fit the sanma into it. The fish is marked as 天日干し which means it has been dried naturally in the sun. This simple process, of laying the fish out to dry in the sun, rids the fish of water, brings out the natural umami in the fish, and changes the texture from tender and watery to a bit more richer and dense. As it is gutted before it is dried all we have to do when we eat it is grill it.
As you can see in the photo of our breakfast, it grills beautifully and was delicious. Our breakfast was rounded out with nukazuke (nuka pickled) cucumbers and turnips, miso soup, kimchi, miso soup, strawberries, and asari gohan (Japanese littleneck clams steamed with the rice).
