Look at this bizarre fish, can you imagine you can eat it? This fish is called "Ankoh" in Japanese, or goosefish in English. It is a deep-sea fish living 30-500 meters depth under the sea. The body is very soft and the skin which contains collagen a lot is slimy, though the appearance is grotesque, it tastes great. I went to eat this fish to special Ankoh restaurant last night.
In the winter of Tokyo, goosefish hotpot is sumptuous meal. Since Edo era (1603-1867) a goosefish has been regarded as one of the 5 delicacies (other four are 3 kinds of bird and seabream). As the famous producing area, Ibaraki prefecture is relatively close to Tokyo, goosefish hotpot is very popular in Tokyo in winter.
Among goosefish bodies, it is said that most delicious part is a liver. We call it "sea foie gras" and often cook it by soaking it in sour vinegar source when we eat it as it is. In hotpot's case, we mix the liver with Miso (soy bean paste) and stir it in the hotpot soup until melted. In the pot, we have a lot of vegetables, mushrooms, soybean curd other than chops of the fish. After eating whole fish meat, we throw in steamed rice into the soup, eat it as a kind of rice porridge. Total cost was about US$80/head, which was about 20% higher than a few years ago.
Do you want to try it? Then, come to visit Tokyo in winter time!
