Pairing a Traditional Tokyo Dish with International Flavors
A Culinary History with Deep Roots in Tokyo
Tsukudani is a mainstay of traditional Japanese cuisine, combining ingredients indigenous to the island nation's natural environment, such as seaweed, fish, and shellfish, with essential seasonings like soy sauce and mirin. The results are sweet and salty morsels eaten as rice toppings at meals or inside onigiri rice balls.
This dish is also deeply connected with Tokyo's history. In the early Edo period, fishers from Osaka were invited to live in the newly founded capital, Edo (now Tokyo), by shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu in repayment for helping him during a battle. Originally from the Tsukuda area of Osaka, the fishers named their new home in Edo Tsukuda too. Although they originally preserved small fish, clams, and seaweed—gathered from the nearby rivers, mudflats, and bay—with salt, by the mid-Edo period the fishers had begun using soy sauce produced in neighboring Chiba instead. Daimyo lords visiting Edo would take tsukudani home with them, spreading it throughout Japan.
Shinbashi Tamakiya was established in 1782 in Edo. Although the shop originally sold zazen-mame, simmered black beans, the third-generation owner also began producing various types of tsukudani. As the shop's popularity spread throughout the capital, local geisha from the nearby entertainment district would drink the beans' sauce because they believed it would improve their voices, and, during the Meiji era (1868-1912), customers lined up to buy zazen-mame for their New Year's celebrations.
In addition to its long history, Shinbashi Tamakiya's products are also special because of the care put into each one. "We keep our sauce separate for each type of tsukudani. For example, the shrimp sauce is just for shrimp, the clam sauce is just for clams," Tamaki explains. "The sauce continues to mature, developing a sweetness, depth, and luster that can't be achieved with normal soy sauce at home."
Pairing Tradition with New Ideas
Although Shinbashi Tamakiya's team has a deep respect for traditions, they are by no means bound by them.
"I think it's important not to be satisfied just maintaining the status quo, but to always consider new ideas and to find what makes today's customers happy," says Tamaki, who joined the family business straight out of university. Tamaki says she does not want Shinbashi Tamakiya's impressive history to create a tense atmosphere or make customers overawed.
"I try to live by my mother's words: Never forget to be kind and humble, no matter how much experience you have," she adds.
When Tamaki's mother was owner, she developed sekai no furikake, dried seasonings to sprinkle on rice based on classic dishes from around the world. Flavors include green curry, Italian tomato, and bacon and eggs.
Since taking over as owner in 2021, Tamaki herself has pioneered new ways for customers to enjoy tsukudani. She and her team developed a wine mariage course, pairing Japanese and European flavors in exciting new combinations. Tamaki says that, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, she heard of people stocking up on wine to drink at home. "If so many people were enjoying wine at home, I wondered if I could make some kind of pairing," she says.
The mariage course pairs three different wines with nine types of tsukudani and various other ingredients. Dishes include dried bonito with camembert cheese and apricot jam; herring with apple, sauerkraut, and sour cream; eel with dark chocolate and fruit; clam with Japanese pepper and lemon pasta; and beans in yogurt.
Each dish is a new discovery, with flavors that evolve in the mouth, showcasing each ingredient while maintaining a cohesive whole. The menu, designed as a light summer meal, presents daring combinations that are still simple enough for guests to try replicating at home. The immaculate plating and smooth wines further add to the experience.
A Creative Future for Tsukudani
Tsukudani has many benefits for people, both in Japan and abroad, in the modern era.
As such, Shinbashi Tamakiya is part of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Edo Tokyo Kirari Project that aims to share traditional products from the capital. Based on the concept of "old meets new," the project introduces Tokyo brands that exhibit innovative ways of passing on traditional, high-quality crafts to future generations.
"The fish have good, healthy minerals such as calcium, and tsukudani keeps well for a long time without artificial preservatives," Tamaki explains. The dish is an example of the Edo period's eco-friendly production and consumption practices, she adds. "Perishable foods generate a lot of food waste, but for tsukudani almost nothing is lost."
Ironically, interest in traditional tsukudani is waning in Japan. "It is seen as old-fashioned," Tamaki says. Her wine mariage is, in part, a bid to reignite interest among Japanese customers. "Japanese people especially have a set image of tsukudani as something for rice, onigiri, ochazuke (rice in broth). At first, they don't think the wine mariage will work," Tamaki says. "But after they try it, they say they will try pairings at home. That makes me really happy."
International customers, on the other hand, have fewer preconceived notions about the dish and are open to the wine mariage idea from the get-go. "For example, when we introduce pairing the clam tsukudani with capellini pasta, they really enjoy it and say they will try making it themselves," Tamaki says.
She hopes that international customers will feel the depth and sweetness of Shinbashi Tamakiya's products, as well as invent new pairings of their own. Tamaki and her team, too, will surely continue to honor this traditional Tokyo dish while embracing new ideas inspired by modern, international culinary culture.
Tamaki Kyoko
Shinbashi Tamakiya
https://www.tamakiya.co.jp/
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