Viva! Fusion food!

Second week of January. Leftovers from the New Year's feast must be gone in most Japanese households, but some TV cooking shows and magazines may be still featuring various ways to use up leftover osechi food, especially mochi (rice cakes). This is the time when many fusion dishes are invented.

Now, take a look at the above photo. This is not my invention-- it's one of the "New Year's specials" from our local pizza shop. Well, "mochi on pizza" is nothing new with cheese and seaweed as accompanying toppings. I wouldn't have been tempted to blog about it if this were just a regular mochi pizza. But they used something interesting to make a Japanese-style pizza sauce for this pizza. Can you guess what it was? It's seafood.

* I don't mean to say that this pizza shop is using osechi leftovers to make this "limited-time-only" version. I meant to say that it's time for "fusion food" here now and this pizza is an interesting example.

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Thanks for guessing. :) Yes, it's uni (sea urchin). More precisely, sea urchin roe. I know some people would go "yuck!" but sea urchin roe is a terribly expensive (well, at least, good ones are) delicasy here, and if you say, "My favorite sushi is uni," it's like telling people that you are a sushi connoisseur AND rich. (But I don't blame you. I had hated uni until I tasted real fresh one a few years back.)

Anyway, I don't think they used top-class sea urchin to make sauce for affordable pizza, but I liked this pizza very much. The sauce was not regular tomato-based one, and uni added an interesting richness with a delicate sweetness, and the sauce went well with the mochi and seaweed on top. But you HAVE TO eat this pizza while it's warm. Definitely.


Categories: Japanese, Western-inspired