Species sheet · The Edible River
Sweetfish
A one-summer fish that smells of melon.
- Shioyaki: skewered, salted, grilled whole
- Tempura, when very small
- Simmered sweet and salty in soy sauce
- In French
- Ayu
- Scientific name
- Plecoglossus altivelis
- In the water
- A small fish of the clear rivers of Japan, Korea and China; it grazes algae from stones on the riverbed and fiercely defends its own patch of rock.
- Season & buying
- A summer fish: in Japan the opening of ayu fishing marks the start of the warm season, with farmed ayu arriving a little earlier.
- Common length
- ~20 cm
- How to identify it
- Slim body, olive back, silver flanks
Yellow patch behind the gill, adipose fin
Soft mouth with lips instead of real teeth
On the plate
Mild, slightly sweet flesh with a green scent of cucumber and watermelon that earns it the name of 'fragrant fish'.
Avoid: Gutting it: the bitter innards are eaten and are part of the pleasure (the Japanese even salt them into a condiment called uruka), so grill it whole.
On the Nagara river it is still caught at night with trained cormorants, a scene more than a thousand years old.
In Umay recipes
One Umay recipe calls for it.
