I’d seen it once at Don Quixote, never since. Seen the paper sign at Nijiya with nary a sign of the real thing. It was this kinda goofy fish, nabeta. It a wrasse and rumoured to be good eating. On my way home tonight I stopped in to find something to make for dinner. After looking at the sanma and opelu, what to my surprise was that the paper sign was not below an empty space, there they were, a trio of nabeta! I had to buy it, damn expensive as this sub half pounder was $9, Nijiya can be expensive. But I had to do it.
Eat me!
The prefered method of preparation seems to be panfrying. Deep fry should also work well. Gut & clean but no need scale, the scales are soft and fry up nicely. Verdict? Oishii! A very nice white meat fish. I made some daikooroshi on the side because I had some left over daikon, but this fish does not need it. It was worth the experiment, if you ever have the chance, try this fish. At the price I got it, I won’t be doing it often, but you don’t see it anyway! 4 out of 4 wrass wrangling monkeys.
Is that the one with the gnarly little teeth? Weird that you can eat the scales.