Centuries of brewing experience makes traditional Japanese food taste better than ever before.

Japanese bento meals come in a wide variety of types and flavours, containing a bed of rice with all sorts of things from fried chicken skins to a single pickled plum. For our reporter Seiji Nakazawa, there’s no bento quite like a saba (mackerel) bento, as the grilled fish is one of those homely staples people in Japan enjoy from childhood, and it never fails to satisfy his stomach and his nostalgic heart whenever he eats it.

The other day, however, proved to be a revelation for Seiji, when he tasted a saba bento that totally blew his mind, and what made it extra surprising was where he bought it — at the Ito-Yokado supermarket.

▼ “イトーヨーカドー” or “Ito-Yokado”

He came across the meal in the bento section of the supermarket, where its low but slightly higher price, compared to the other saba bentos, caught his eye.

At 645 yen (US$4.10), it was still a great price to pay for a bento, especially when the fish inside looked so good, but when he saw the name of the bento, he was even more impressed.

▼ “The Northernmost Sake Brewery! Kunimare Sake Brewing Sake Lees Marinated Mackerel Bento.”

This unusual name definitely piqued his interest, and when he did some research online, he discovered that Kunimare Sake Brewery is indeed the country’s northernmost brewery, located on the northern island of Hokkaido, and it’s been in operation since 1882.

With 142 years of history behind it, this is an esteemed brewery, and the bento uses Kunimare’s sake lees to marinate the fish, giving it extra umami flavour. Sake lees is essentially the paste-like solid component that’s separated from the liquid during sake production, and as it has the same fruity flavour as the sake it’s extracted from, it’s commonly used in cooking to add an extra depth of delicious flavour.

The lees certainly added another dimension of taste to the bento, giving it a wow factor that Seiji hasn’t experienced before. The sake lees in the marinade brought out the sweetness of the fatty mackerel, giving it an amazing melt-in-the-mouth quality.

The salty sweet marinade also melted into the rice beneath the fish, giving it extra flavour as well.

The fish was out-of-this-world delicious, and there was a lot of it too, making it great value for money. As a seasoned saba expert, Seiji says this humble, unassuming bento blows other more expensive mackerel meals out of the water, and he highly recommends trying it if you ever come across it.

So next time you’re looking for a quick meal on a budget during your travels around Japan, be sure to check out the offerings at your nearest supermarket. You never know what amazing finds await you, and if you’re lucky, they might even be heavier than a newborn baby!

Related: Kunimare Sake Brewery
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