Sunomono - Vinegared Dishes

Lessons 13-14: Sunomono: Vinegared Dishes

Any fish or vegetable can be used in sunomono, vinegared dishes. The ingredients are first processed, salted or heated, then dressed or marinated in seasoned vinegar.

Sunomono can play a number of roles in Japanese kaiseki cuisine.

Served as a first course in a meal, the refreshing acidic, lightly pickled flavor of sunomono, can help stimulate the appetite. In the middle of a meal, it gives a dash of new color between the preceding and following course. As a last course, just before the rice in a kaiseki meal, sunomono signals a change from the drinking to the eating phase of the meal.

Sunomono Techniques

• Learn the effects of the use of salt and vinegar on various foods
• How to make the major kinds of combined vinegar dressing
• Proper methods for marinating using vinegar
• Proper and effective presentation of sunomono

Recipes from Lessons 13 and 14:

• Mackerel Marinated in Kelp
• Vinegared Octopus
• Vinegared Crab
• Hirame Flounder Omelet Roll
• Steamed Abalone
• Ark Shell Salad with Miso Dressing

With English language mini-texts containing the recipes for all dishes in Lessons 13 and 14 prepared by TSUJI’s professors.