Explore the source of production and taste the flavor of fresh sea cucumbers and Hotate. Good products from the Sea of Japan.

Scallops eaten in Japan require around two years to reach their maximum size. Reaching a huge size may require up to five years.

After that, visiting "Hotate Hiroba," a local food store in Hiranai, Aomori Prefecture. They provide processed and fresh hotate for sale. An exhibition of items used in the scallop fishing industry is located on the second floor. A restaurant where guests may enjoy scallops and a variety of other seafood meals is located in the same vicinity in another building.

The following day, we visited the Oshamambe Fisheries Cooperative fishing port in Oshamambe City, southern Hokkaido, to see the fishermen's offloading of scallops from their boats. After that, it goes through sorting before some of it is sent to be sold fresh, and the processing factory takes the remaining portion.

At the port's cargo sorting and storage facility, the hosts prepared two kind of scallops for the guests to sample: stir-fried scallops lightly seasoned with sauce. and steamed scallops, which don't even need to be cooked. Yet both are excellent without seasoning and taste great on their own.

The highlight of the event was hearing the entrepreneur's talk about the quality of his locally grown products, which is the result of a meticulous production process, at a meeting with representatives from the Oshamambe Fisheries Cooperative at Matsuta Fisheries Ltd. in Oshambe City.

Here, we enjoyed scallops with chili sauce, grilled scallops, and scallop sashimi. After we had completed eating, we visited the Matsuta Fisheries factory to look at the scallops being processed into frozen and fresh scallops. This one is the biggest factory in the country.

The first step in the factory's processing procedure is to take the scallop meat out of its shell. Just the round, white fleshknown as the scallop tendonsneeds to be carved out and separated in order to be frozen. (Selected particular parts to process.) All labor is done by humans at this step.

After that, the plump scallops were sent to be cleaned and washed. The scallops are put on a conveyor belt and fed into the freezer, which uses quick freezing technology to freeze food at a temperature of -35 degrees Celsius in a matter of seconds. When it emerges, it will be solid and ready to be packaged.

Once processed, scallops can be kept in storage for a long period and shipped to any location in the world as fresh frozen scallops. Simply melt them when it's time to eat. The quality of the plump, bouncy flesh scallops is comparable to what you would get if you were to eat them fresh in Japan.

On our final day in Hokkaido, we went to the Shizukari Fisheries Cooperative to watch sea cucumbers being unloaded at the Oshamambe port. Here, we got to sample freshly sea cucumbers that had just been taken out of the ocean, cut into small pieces, and briefly soaked in vinegar.

We got "too full" from eating so many scallops and sea cucumbers during our trip. Our host prepares sea cucumbers and scallops, both raw and cooked, in every place we visit. They are both quite tasty. To fully appreciate their natural sweetness, we also tasted them uncooked. When it comes to the cooking, the goal will be to bring out the flavor of the foods without using a lot of seasoning. Some foods, like the fried scallops at the shellfish sorting factory mentioned earlier, are so good that it surprises me.

Unlike scallops, the sea cucumber really no flavor of its own. However, its crunchy texturewhich makes it easy to chew and eat in any dishmakes it stand out. You can even break it up and eat it fresh right out of the water. It may seem a little odd at first. You will be regret if you have a chance to view them at the dock but dont taste them.

Sea cucumbers are a highly nutritious food that is rich in calcium, zinc, collagen, and various amino acids.

Chinese restaurants in Thailand might have a greater selection of sea cucumber dishes than Japanese eateries. However, there are numerous ways to prepare meals with sea cucumbers in Japan.

"The smaller and more buttons on the sea cucumber is better," a local business owner said us. Therefore, pick the dried, processed type with lots of small buttons if you buy it.

The dried sea cucumber will lose eighty percent of its weight, but it will regain its normal size when immersed in water. The meat of the sea cucumber will be delicious and crunchy, just like when it was first caught.

In addition to sampling fresh sea cucumbers and scallops at the pier and sorting facility, we enjoyed a lot of meals throughout our trip that featured succulent, juicy scallops and crisp sea cucumbers. I get to savor the fresh flavor of the ingredients in a range of culinary styles, from the signature menu to senior chefs at a well-known local restaurant to menus designed by chefs at upscale hotel restaurants.

It must be noted, too, that the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture and the local business association prepared special trips for us to visit practically every location. The public is not permitted access to them.

If you were planning to try the succulent sea cucumber and hotate that we did at the restaurant. Please get started right away. Furthermore, there are plenty of stores throughout Japan for to choose. Also, you can sense the freshness of Japanese ingredients even at Thai restaurants.

Source: https://www.prachachat.net/spinoff/food/news-1524583

Thank you: Prachachat Turakit

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