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Tantalizing fragrances from a steaming bowl of
miso
soup, full-bodied flavors in a simmered dish. The delightful aroma and taste of Japanese cuisine make every meal a pleasure, and they often come fromkatsuo-bushi.
katsuo-bushi--at first glance you might think it's a block of stone or wood. But no, it's dried bonito fish, an ingredient Japanese cooks wouldn't dare be without. They use it to make stock formiso soup or stew, sauce fortempura or noodle dips, and more.
Every spring, bonito fish migrate north and remain off the coast of Japan until fall. When they arrive off Japan, it is said that early summer has arrived too.
The bonito are boiled whole and cut into halves. The bones and skin are removed, and the good parts are smoked, dried in the sun, smoked, and dried again, time after time. This curing process continues for about six months, finally yielding hard blocks ofkatsuo-bushi like the ones in the photo. The brown powdery mold on the surface adds to the curing process.
The mold is washed off before the fish is used in cooking. A small part of the block is shaved into very thin pieces, using a plane made especially for that purpose. Twenty or thirty years ago, every Japanese home had such a plane, and when a meal was being prepared one of the children would slice off pieces of dried fish. But in more recent years it has become common to buy machine-planed slices from a grocery store.
The slices can be boiled to make stock, or sprinkled on food. The fish gives the stock a delicate flavor, and adds to the unique taste of Japanese cuisine. The taste can be duplicated using powdered or liquid seasonings, and these are now so common that many young people have never seen a block of dried bonito.
However, many other people insist on the taste and fragrance that onlykatsuo-bushi can give. Chikaishi Kazuhiko, the head chef at a prestigious Japanese restaurant called Aoyagi, puts it this way: "Dried bonito is the heart and soul of Japanese cuisine. Whenever we train a young chef, the first thing we do is show them how to use it properly."
It's difficult to imagine Japanese food withoutkatsuo-bushi. Slices of bonito blocks add something special to meals every day, all over Japan. 
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