When it comes to Enoshima Island (in Kanagawa Prefecture), there is one ingredient that many restaurants on the island and restaurants nearby take pride in and that’s shirasu.
Shirasu is what people may know as whitebait, young, immature fish traveling together in the ocean and considered a delicacy in this region of Kanagawa.
Shirasu are usually juvenile sardines (ma-iwashi), juvenile anchovy (katakuchi-iwashi) or juvenile herring (urume-iwashi) and shirasu is consumed as raw, by boiling (shirasu) or as chirimen-jako (dried shirasu)
And the main dish that attracts people to Enoshima island is shirasu-don which is shirasu on white rice, as well as many other shirasu dishes, may it be fried, eaten raw, made as koroke and even ice cream.
I’ve tried different restaurants in Enoshima Island but there is one restaurant that is famous for shirasu-don and that is Tobiccho.
Tobiccho is located when you enter the main pathway to where the restaurants are located. You can’t miss it as you will see shirasu cartoon like characters on the restaurant logo.
For this restaurant, I’m going to discuss it in two parts. The first part focusing on the indoor restaurant and eating Shirasu-don at Tobiccho, while the second will feature the outdoor portion.
Because of the popularity of the restaurant, the first step to eating at Tobiccho is grabbing a ticket. You can see by the number that you get and how long your wait will be until your seated. You can also reserve and come back at a later time.
Once you are seated, you will get a menu (they will offer an English menu if needed). They will give you the wet cloth to clean your hands, water, chopsticks (spoons if needed). Click here to look at the menu.
On the table is for those who want to make a special ponzu sauce (soy-sauce with citrus) by taking a raw egg and an onsen egg (this is a soft-boiled egg) to mix with your ponzu sauce to make a sauce to put on your Shirasu-don. This is optional, if you want to do so for an additional cost of Y60.
Of course, I wanted their world famous shirasu-don and so I ordered their seafood special, which cost a little bit more than what’s on their menu, but I have been waiting to eat at this place for a long time, so the price is well worth it (under Y2000). What’s interesting about Tobiccho, they actually told me to be soy sauce to eat with it (other restaurants didn’t), so I was grateful for them for showing me a much better and tastier way of eating shirasu.
What I ordered is their #1 item known as the Tobiccho Donburi (Tobicchodon). The fish is fresh and the seafood is served on vinegar rice (what they use for sushi rice).
The donburi is served with miso soup and all I can say is that the Tobiccho Donburi is absolutely delicious!
Looking at the top of this dish (the big pieces of fish, from left to right). You get one piece of toro salmon sashimi (fatty salmon), kaanpachi osashimi (grilled amberjack sashimi) and toro maguro sashimi (tuna sashimi). You get egg, ebi (shrimp), sakura ebi (pickled tiny shrimp), negitoro (raw tuna paste – in the center) and I think the other fish is katsu aji (horse mackerel, pictured with the sauce on the upper left). And of course, you get the shirasu (of the sardine variety) with ikura (salmon egg) on top.
And of course the sushi rice (vinegar rice) on the bottom covered with vegetables.
The dish was simply amazing but what if you are person who doesn’t want to eat shirasu and want to dine at Tobiccho?
Well, there are non-shirasu dishes. If you like sushi, then you can try the sushi dishes, may it be the toro maguro (tuna), kanpachi (amberjack) or the toro salmon.
There is also hamaguri tempura (oyster) or sazae tempura (a shelled fish) and more!
But let’s say you want the raw shirasu-don experience, Tobiccho has dishes that are only available during fishing seasons (so January-March is excluded).
So, if the shirasu is grayish, that means raw. If the shirasu is white, that means it was boiled.
While I did eat the boiled shirasu at Tobiccho, because they don’t serve raw shirasu between January and March, I did manage to eat raw shirasu at another location (which I will blog about in the near future).
Nevertheless, Tobiccho was a wonderful experience and a must-do for seafood fans and should be on one’s foodie bucketlist.
Tomorrow, I will discuss what you can purchase outdoors via the Shirasu Wholesaler Tobiccho, especially…Shirasu Ice Cream!
