Tatami iwashi


Tatami iwashi or tatami shirasu is a Japanese processed food made by drying baby sardines or anchovies into rectangular sheets.
Tatami iwashi are served after first lightly toasting the sheet. It is a well-known snack eaten as an accompaniment to sake or beer drinking, as well as a local specialty of the coastal areas of Shizuoka Prefecture and Kanagawa Prefecture.

Etymology

This food item is named for its resemblance to a straw tatami mat common in traditional Japanese-style rooms or houses, according to one theory. An alternate explanation is that the product was made by drying out on sunoko made of the common rush, which is the same fiber that tatami mats are woven from.

Manufacture

The shirasu to be used are selected, so that fresh, medium-thin and less fatty fry about are selected.
The raw shirasu get laid out thinly on the sieve screen lining of their framed molds and after the moisture drips off to retain shape, the semi-dried sheets are laid out an unrolled rush mat and sun-dried, peeling them off once well-dried.
The process is evocative of traditional Japanese paper-making, and similar to that craft, laying the small fish evenly on the sieve requires mastery of technique.
If the fish are not of paramount freshness, the fish will sag and the sheets flatten, and will not form the textured sheets characteristic of prime-quality tatami iwashi. Also attempting to press pre-cooked kamaage shirasu into sheets will not work.
Formerly these were made A4 paper size, but nowadays they are mostly postcard-sized.

Uses

Since ordinary tatami iwashi is not flavored, toasting the sheet over a flame and sprinkling some soy sauce on top is a standard way to serve it.
The tatami iwashi may be refrigerated or otherwise cooled for a longer shelf life.
According to the for the year 2010, tatami iwashi contains 75% protein.
Japan's has categorized tatami iwashi as "processed seafoods".
A 2022 survey by Japan's from a randomly selected pool of citizens 1 year or older found that the Japanese consumed on average 0.977g of shirasu per day, versus only 0.001g of tatami iwashi during the month of November.

History

The haikai literary theory work completed 1638 mentions the tatami iwashi as a specialty product of Iyo Province which used fish netted locally in Uwajima.
The culinary work of 1643 also writes that tatami iwashi is good for sakana
Another culinary work written 1729 by Kaga Domain kitchen official Funaki Dennai describes the tatami iwashi as a product made by placing baby anchovies about 1 inch in length into molds about 5 to 6 inches square, then drying them out into rectangles like funori seaweed. That when it is browned after flaming it, it makes excellent snack for drinking.

Mentions by notable people

, who was daughter-in-law to Bakin and acted as scribe for his diary, continued to writer her own diary in the 1850s entitled Michijo nikkifs. The tatami iwashi appears twice on the menu during 5 years of meal-taking.
Novelist Jun'ichirō Tanizaki in the 1934 work Tōkyō wo omou wrote "I see the reason why 's specialty dishes are such things as funa-no-suzumeyaki, Asakusa nori, and tatami iwashi. Before the Earthquake, Tokyo was said to be a village not a city, and evens still now after the Quake, it is still a countrified place, in a way". The Chines prose writer Zhou Zuoren who had studied abroad in Japan for some years read this remark and gave his opinion that "Jun'ichirō Tanizaki clarified the frailty, poverty, lack of affluence, and shabbiness of the foods of Tokyo".

Works that mention