Pen shell

Tairagai (jambonneau)

What it is

The pen shell lives buried point-down and standing upright, anchored by byssus threads with only the fan edge showing, so divers find it by touch rather than by eye. The Ariake Sea fishery that once supplied most of Japan’s tairagai has recorded zero-catch years since 2012, and the price now follows the scarcity rather than the season.

In the kitchen

Only the big adductor and the strip of mantle around it are used; the rest goes. Score the muscle in a shallow crosshatch and sear a single face twenty seconds so the centre stays raw — cooked through it turns floury, and no sauce hides that.

Goes with

Soy sauce Wasabi Yuzu Butter Kombu Sudachi Junmai sake Chives

In season alongside

Gurnard Haddock Hake John Dory Pollack Pollock

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