Katsuo no Tataki

Cooks cut the bonito into long loins with the skin on, sear the outside over burning rice straw so the middle stays raw, cool it and slice it about a centimetre thick. The straw gives a smoky edge. In Kochi you eat it with salt or with a citrus and soy sauce, piled with sliced garlic and onion. Locals also call it Tosa-zukuri, after the old name of the province.

Nobody agrees on how it started. One story credits fishermen's meals, and another says the domain lord Yamauchi Kazutoyo banned raw bonito, so people seared the outside and called it grilled fish. A bonito fishing company opened the Myojinmaru restaurants in 1999 to sear it over straw, and they have a stall inside Kochi's Hirome Market.