A is a traditional
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
ese kitchen utensil, similar to a
wood plane or
mandoline
file:Cooking Mandolin with Carrot.jpg, A mandoline used for slicing a carrot
A mandoline (US, ) or mandolin (British, /ˌmandəˈlɪn/, /ˈmandəlɪn/, /ˈmandl̩ɪn/), is a culinary utensil used for slicing and for cutting Julienning, juliennes ...
. It is used to shave , dried blocks of
skipjack tuna
The skipjack tuna (''Katsuwonus pelamis'') is a medium-sized perciform fish in the tuna family, Scombridae. It is otherwise known as the balaya (Sri Lanka), bakulan/kayu (North Borneo), tongkol/aya (Malay Peninsula/Indonesia), aku (Hawaii), cakal ...
().
The technique used to prepare the cooking ingredient is pulling and pushing a block of across the blade in the device in a back-and-forth movement. The resulting shavings are captured in a wooden drawer at the bottom of the instrument and retrieved by opening and emptying the shavings that are roughly sorted into two sizes for different uses.
The shavings are a staple of
Japanese cuisine
Japanese cuisine encompasses the regional and traditional foods of Japan, which have developed through centuries of political, economic, and social changes. The traditional cuisine of Japan (Japanese: ) is based on rice with miso soup and other ...
.
Larger, thicker shavings, called , are boiled with to make . Smaller, thinner shavings, called , are used as a flavoring and as a topping for many Japanese dishes, such as .
Today, many Japanese households no longer use the , opting instead to buy packages of already-shaved or at supermarkets.
See also
*
Mandoline
file:Cooking Mandolin with Carrot.jpg, A mandoline used for slicing a carrot
A mandoline (US, ) or mandolin (British, /ˌmandəˈlɪn/, /ˈmandəlɪn/, /ˈmandl̩ɪn/), is a culinary utensil used for slicing and for cutting Julienning, juliennes ...
*, the category of graters used in Japanese cooking
References
Japanese food preparation utensils
Japanese words and phrases
{{Japan-stub