The season of appetites

Yesterday's dinner at home.

• Sanma no Shio-yaki (= grilled saury with salt)
• Niku jaga (= simmered meat, onions and potatos)
• Hourensou ohitashi (= boiled spinach dipped in soy sauce)
• Hiya-yakko (= cold tofu topped with ginger and spring onion
  
• Plain rice
  

Autumn is the season of the appetites. Various kind of ingredients come onto market such as chestnuts, persimmons, pears and matsutake mushrooms. In all of those Autumn foodstuff, many Japanese people should point out sanma (Pacific saury) as the most popular one. Actually we can eat sanmas all season nowadays but Autumn sanmas are much tastier than those of the other seasons.

Normally we broil it with salt (shio-yaki). Not only the white flesh part, but the little-bitter guts are also very good. I myself would love to have it as sashimi (= sliced way of raw fish).
If you visit Japan in Autumn, please try sanma. You can find it easily in supermarkets or some Japanese style small restaurants (we call teishoku-ya) have menus of sanma.