Mentaiko

Mentaiko (œufs de colin marinés)

What it is

Karashi mentaiko was worked out in Fukuoka in 1949 by Kawahara Toshio, who had grown up in Busan and spent years rebuilding the Korean myeongnan-jeot he remembered, with less salt and a chilli cure pitched at Japanese palates. Even the name is borrowed: mentai comes from myeongtae, the Korean word for pollock.

In the kitchen

Split the sac and scrape the roe off the membrane with the back of a knife, then fold it into hot pasta or soft butter off the heat. A minute of direct heat turns it grainy and a dull pink.

Goes with

Rice Butter Nori Spring onion Cream Soy sauce Egg Shiso

Same species

Cod Cod liver Hwangtae (freeze-dried pollack) Cod tongues Salt cod Smoked cod roe

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