2.104

19 (Tue) April 2011

Engawa Nigirizushi

3.0

from E-Mart

at home

-Oksu, Seongdong, Seoul, Republic of Korea-

w W and D

In Japanese cuisine, engawa is a cut of fish.  It’s the muscular section adjacent to the fin of the fish hiramae (fluke/flounder).  The term derives the strip of wooden flooring in front of doors in traditional Japanese houses.  Each fish yields only a few nigiri-sized pieces.

While the fish is popular to be eaten as raw fish in Korea, mainstream customers don’t really seem to dig the fins. A few years ago, I went to an all-u-can-eat sushi-boat restaurant just prior to closing time, where the chefs served the engawa en masse at the very end, begging us stragglers to finish them off – yes, thank you.  At large scale supermarkets, like E-Mart, the sushi corner will set aside the engawa and sell them as sushi, for the occasional shopper who might like it, like me.

Here, the package was just 9,900 won for 11 pieces.

(For more details re food, see WHAT)

(For more details re venues, see WHERE IN KOREA)