For Okinawans, the standard way to cook white fish is not to simmer it in miso or soy sauce, but to simmer it in “Shima-maasu(Salt)”.
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魚のマース煮＜Fish boiled in Shima-maasu(Salt)＞- Shima-maasu stew
(maas/maasu/mars)
When you think of Okinawa, you think of standard dishes like soki soba, goyachampuuru, and tacos, but…
Shima maasu stew is an Okinawan dish made by stewing white fish with head and tail in Okinawan salt (Shima-maasu).
For Okinawans, boiled fish = boiled in Shima-maasu(boiled in salt)!?
Soy sauce stew and miso stew are not very common in Okinawa!?
Salt is made using electricity and machines all over the country, but Okinawa salt (maasu solt) is mostly natural salt.
maasu solt is not a typical salt with a strong salty taste, but a salt rich in minerals with a delicious taste that can be felt with sweet, bitter and sour tastes.
If salt is delicious, then salt-grilled fish is probably what you’d expect, but it’s not very common in Okinawa.
The reason is that most of the fish caught in Okinawa are white fish with little fat, so grilling them often just makes them dry.
The appeal of stewed maasu is the natural taste of the fish brought out by the island maasu and the sweetness of the salt!
Restaurants don’t list the names of fish on their menus because they use fresh fish procured that day!?
They can’t catch a specific fish.
boiled in Shima-maasu is basically a dish that is usually eaten at home.
It also contains colorful fish such as mae (spinning rockfish), kariyushi kinme (gold-eyed snapper), obacha (a type of parrotfish), meebai, and mimija.
Generally, island tofu is also stewed together.
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＜This is a story from Professor Takemura Akihiro of the Faculty of Science at the University of the Ryukyus.＞
It is said that maasu stew emerged as a home-cooked dish during the Ryukyu Kingdom period, from the 14th to 19th centuries.
Soy sauce and miso were expensive and not available during the Ryukyu Kingdom period, so the only seasoning available was salt.
And since most of the fish was white, it seems the dish finally chosen was boiled Shima-maasu.
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