Japanese abalone ◆

Awabi (ormeau du Japon)

What it is

At Kuzaki in Mie prefecture, elders still slice abalone thin, stretch it and dry it into strips offered at the Ise Shrine three times a year. That dried strip is the origin of the noshi, the folded paper flash printed on Japanese gift envelopes ever since — a stretched abalone standing for good fortune drawn out and prolonged.

In the kitchen

Scrub it with coarse salt until the grey slime lifts, or nothing you do afterwards will taste clean. Then commit: raw and sliced very thin, or braised four hours in sake, dashi and daikon — anywhere between twenty minutes and three hours it is simply rubber.

Goes with

Junmai sake Kombu Daikon Soy sauce Butter Yuzu Shiso Dried shiitake (donko)

Same species

Abalone Dried abalone

In season alongside

Lobster coral Gagome kombu Ikura Irish moss Breton kombu Royal kombu

Something wrong here, or missing? Tell us