A is a traditional

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese kitchen utensil, similar to a wood plane or mandoline. It is used to shave , dried blocks of

skipjack tuna The skipjack tuna (''Katsuwonus pelamis'') is a perciform fish in the tuna family, Scombridae, and is the only member of the genus ''Katsuwonus''. It is also known as katsuo, arctic bonito, mushmouth, oceanic bonito, striped tuna or victor fish. ...

(). The technique used to prepare the cooking ingredient is pulling and pushing a block of across the blade in the device in a back-and-forth movement. The resulting shavings are captured in a wooden drawer at the bottom of the instrument, and retrieved by opening and emptying the shavings that are roughly sorted into two sizes for different uses. The shavings are a staple of

Japanese cuisine Japanese cuisine encompasses the regional and traditional foods of Japan, which have developed through centuries of political, economic, and social changes. The traditional cuisine of Japan (Japanese language, Japanese: ) is based on rice with m ...

. Larger, thicker shavings, called , are boiled with to make . Smaller, thinner shavings, called , are used as a flavoring and as a topping for many Japanese dishes, such as . Today, many Japanese households no longer use the , opting instead to buy packages of already-shaved or at supermarkets.

References

Japanese food preparation utensils Japanese words and phrases {{Japan-stub

See also

References