Funazushi

**Start with a few slices, not a whole fish.** A whole funazushi is a serious purchase and an even more serious commitment if you find you dislike it. Vacuum packs of a few slices are sold everywhere. **Ask for the roe.** Female fish carry a dense orange roe that fills the belly cavity, and that is the part connoisseurs pay for. It is milder than the flesh. **Farmed nigorobuna is the norm now.** The wild Lake Biwa population fell far enough that producers began farming their own. Makers will tell you which they use, and wild fish costs several times more. **Ochazuke is the beginner's route.** Slices in a bowl with hot green tea poured over rice softens everything about it, and it is how many Shiga households actually eat it. **It is a new year food.** Fermented from summer, ready around January, so late winter is when the year's batch is at its intended point. **The smell is not spoilage.** Lactic fermentation over months. If that sounds like a warning, it is meant as one, and trying it in a restaurant before buying is the sensible order.