Hirakata Port Anko Nabe

Monkfish is ugly, gelatinous and almost entirely edible — the Japanese phrase is that seven parts of it can be eaten, including the skin, the stomach, the gills and above all the liver, which is rich enough to be compared with foie gras. Ibaraki lands more of it than anywhere else, and Hirakata, a small bottom-trawling port at the northern tip of the prefecture, is where the fishermen's own version of the dish comes from.

That version is dobujiru, and it is not the same as the anko nabe sold inland. The liver is dry-fried in the pot first until the fat renders, miso is worked into it, and then the fish and vegetables go in with no stock and no water at all — the liquid comes entirely out of the ingredients. The result is thick, grey and extraordinarily rich. Traditionally it was cooked on the boat. Several small inns at the port serve it through the winter, and it is worth booking a room rather than doing it as a lunch.

The technique of cooking with no added liquid, letting the monkfish and vegetables release everything the pot needs on their own, is what separates dobujiru from the anko nabe served in restaurants further inland, where stock is typically added and the dish is built more like a conventional hot pot. That difference comes directly from the boat: fishermen working long, cold hauls needed a dish that used what was already on board without carrying extra fresh water or dashi, and the dry-fried liver at the start of the process does double duty, both flavoring the pot and rendering enough fat to cook everything else in. Because monkfish is unusually difficult to butcher — its gelatinous body has no proper skeleton to guide a blade, and much of the skill lies in separating the edible parts by feel rather than by cutting along bone — the fishermen who prepare dobujiru at Hirakata's inns are generally the same people, or their direct successors, who caught and broke down the fish themselves, keeping the dish's preparation closer to its working origin than most regional specialties manage.