Japanese Amberjack/Yellowtail

JAPANESE FOODS

05.12.2022

 The Japanese amberjack, also known as yellowtail, is a popular rich and fatty fish in Japanese cuisine. 
It is a migratory fish belonging to the Carangidae family of the Perciformes group and grows to over 1 meter in length and about 8 kg in weight. It inhabits the coastal sea area of the Japanese archipelago and the East China Sea. The flesh looks white, but it’s closer to tuna due to the high presence of blood pigment protein, hemoglobin, muscle pigment protein, and myoglobin in the muscle.
In Japanese cuisine, it is eaten raw as sashimi and nigiri sushi, cooked in a teriyaki sauce, in clear soups and hot pot dishes. A popular amberjack dish eaten during the wintertime is buri daikon, amberjack filets, and daikon simmered in a sweet-savory glaze. 
In the Japanese language, amberjack goes by many names; if you count the regional names, there are over 100! It’s a type of shusse-uo (出世魚), “promotional fish,” which has different names according to their stages of growth. Shusse-uo is considered auspicious in Japanese culture and is often cooked in celebratory dishes as it is associated with growth and advancement. 
Here are a few of the Japanese names for yellowtail you may encounter: 

Wakashi ワカシ Wakana ワカナ Wakanago ワカナゴ

Yellowtail under 20 cm. 

Inada イナダ

Yellowtail 20-30 cm in length. 

Hamachi ハマチ

Yellowtail 30-40 cm in length. It can also refer to farmed yellowtail. 

Warasa ワラサ

Yellowtail 30-60 cm in length. 

Mejiro メジロ

Yellowtail 60-80 cm in length. 

Buri ブリ

Mature yellowtail over 70-80 cm in length. 
The Chinese character for buri 鰤 differs from the original Chinese name. In Chinese, the character represents a different fish. There are many examples of Chinese characters not matching the fish in the Chinese and Japanese languages due to mistranslation and misunderstanding.