A very delicious Ahi-Jo has been created where Shizuoka's mountain and sea ingredients come together!
First, the representative of mountain ingredients, bamboo shoots! Shizuoka is blessed with a warm climate and abundant rainfall, which are ideal conditions for bamboo growth. There are many bamboo groves in the Satoyama (community-managed mountain forests) in the region, and traditional bamboo crafts called "Suruga Zaiku" have been thriving for a long time. Bamboo-based culture has taken root in the city of Shizuoka, making bamboo shoots one of its hidden specialty products. Bamboo shoots lose freshness rapidly from the moment they are harvested, but we adhere to the practice of immediately boiling them in a large 1-meter pot after digging them up. We meticulously boil them for three hours to eliminate bitterness using a special method, resulting in the delicious and flavorful bamboo shoots from Satou-san's farm in Shizuoka City, which have minimal bitterness.
Next, representatives of seafood ingredients, sakura shrimp and shirasu (whitebait)! Both are precious "treasures of Suruga Bay," representing Shizuoka, and are only caught in Shizuoka and Taiwan worldwide. We use the flavorful and crispy bamboo shoots, along with the plump sweetness of sakura shrimp and the delicious shirasu that thrives in Suruga Bay, which is a rich fishing ground fed by nutrient-rich waters from Mount Fuji and the Southern Alps. The flavorful and crispy bamboo shoots, sakura shrimp with its plump sweetness, and shirasu all harmonize beautifully in one pot, creating our Ahi-Jo that's packed with the essence of Shizuoka. Please do enjoy it!