Fish has long been a culinary staple in Japan, as you may well expect of an archipelago.
Fortunately enough for them, Japan’s waters also teem with some of the most delectable seafood possible. It’s certainly been no hardship for the Japanese to have fish dominate many of their menus for years!
As luck would have it, we can now get a fair number of Japan’s fish here in Singapore. This offers up a treasure trove of epicurean possibilities for enthusiastic cooks and diners alike.
If you’re not sure about where to start, let us take you through the top options. Here, we’ll go over the very best Japanese fish that you can now purchase and try in Singapore.
Unagi or Anago (Freshwater or Saltwater Eel)
First off, yes: eel are fish. Now that we have that out of the way, let’s get to why they’re among our top recommendations - simply put, they’re delicious!
Unagi is slightly denser than most fish yet still offers a lovely, soft mouthfeel to go with its rich fattiness. Anago is similar, but usually a bit softer, and slightly milder and sweeter in taste.
If you get either of these here, the usual recommendation is to try it in one of the most popular preparations for eel in Japan.
That is, grill an eel fillet kabayaki-style with a sweet soy-based sauce and serve it over freshly steamed rice. You can serve it in a bowl for a donburi meal!
Sawara (Mackerel)
To be precise, sawara is Spanish mackerel. It’s a white-fleshed fish with a superbly flakey texture and a ton of umami goodness.
Sawara Fish is very flexible and can be eaten both cooked (often broiled) and raw. If you want to try it, we strongly recommend getting it in the wintertime.
That’s because sawara in this season boasts a tonne of fat, making it even more melt-in-the-mouth delicious than usual!
Anko (Monkfish)
This fish may look ugly as sin (or so some people have said), but it’s absolutely delectable. Most importantly, it offers one of the finest delicacies you can get from the sea: marine fois gras!
First, the flesh: meaty and sweet, there’s something reminiscent of lobster here. It’s very often cooked in a hotpot, which is called ankonabe, that is typically eaten in winter.
What really makes a classic ankonabe is the liver of the fish, though. You can harvest it yourself, but in most cases, you get it separately: salt-cured, log-rolled, and vacuum-sealed. The Japanese call it ankimo.
Adding it to any dish imbues that dish with a buttery, umami flavour that will really - really! - knock your socks off. There’s no exaggeration here: it’s truly something you have to taste for yourself to believe.
Because of this and its overall taste, anko can be hard to get. This fish is so popular, it’s actually fairly common for it to sell out within the day at fishmongers in Japan.
That’s why if you find good-quality monkfish from your fishmonger here in Singapore, you should jump at the chance to get it!
Ootoro (Bluefin Tuna)
We could just say ootoro is bluefin tuna, but that doesn’t really do it justice. Ootoro is a specific part of bluefin tuna: the belly, which is so highly marbled with fat that it will melt in your mouth.
If you’ve ever eaten tuna belly sashimi, chances are you’ve eaten chutoro instead. This is fatty tuna, like ootoro, but still a bit meatier and thus redder.
If you eat tuna in other preparations, like seared or cooked dishes, on the other hand, it’s more likely to have been akami. That refers to the parts of tuna that are reddest and meatiest, with the least fat on them.
Ootoro is palest, highest in fat, and the rarest of them because you can only get a little bit of it per fish. This makes it the most expensive option.
However, if you’re a sashimi lover, take our word for it: it shouldn’t be skipped! Try it at least once to find out why it’s so loved in Japan.
Nodoguro / Akamutsu (Blackthroat Seaperch)
This is a whitefish with astonishing amounts of fat. In fact, it’s so sweet and rich that some people refer to it as the whitefish version of fatty tuna!
These fish come in a wide range of sizes, but larger ones are usually prized more, as they also tend to have more fat. If you want to try one, you can either have it grilled or cut into sashimi.
If grilling the fish, note that the general advice is to grill them without filleting. By cooking them with the bones, you can even more flavour out of this sweet and fatty fish.
Katsuo / Bonito (Skipjack Tuna)
Can we really make a list like this without including the iconic katsuo?
Katsuo is a flexible and delicious fish that is actually among the most sustainable options you can have for seafood. It reproduces quickly and often, so it’s not nearly as ecologically problematic to fish for as bluefin tuna, for example.
And it’s iconic status surely needs no explanation. After all, this is the fish from which we get katsuobushi, one of the cornerstones of the dashi used so often in Japanese cooking.
But you can actually enjoy it in so many other ways. Cured, raw, grilled - it tastes good just about any way you prepare it!
Our advice is to try it seared on the outside but still mostly raw inside. This gives you the best of both worlds and demonstrates why it’s considered one of the classic fish ingredients of Japanese cuisine.
Fish oils come from fatty or oily fish, like trout, mackerel, fish, herring, sardines, and salmon.
They contain omega-3 fatty acids, and many contain nutrients An and D. Nonetheless, concentrates into supplement use have delivered blended, and it is muddled whether enhancements are useful.
study fish oils and omega-3, including some potential medical advantages and some great omega 3 fish oil.
A 10 gallon fish tank is one of the most common sizes for a fish tank.
They’re large enough to hold a large variety of fish while being small enough to fit in nearly any room or setting.
With the right filter, a 10 gallon aquarium is fairly low maintenance.
That is not to say it’s maintenance-free simply easier to take care of than, say, a 50 gallon tank.
10 gallon fish tank can be used for saltwater or freshwater fish.
