Hiroshima oysters crumbed in panko and deep-fried until the coating cracks and the oyster inside is still barely set, served with shredded cabbage and tartare sauce.
Where to eat it: 2 restaurants across 1 city.
Fried oysters are a yoshoku dish, part of the Western-influenced cooking that entered Japan from the late nineteenth century, and Hiroshima adopted them wholesale because the raw material was on its doorstep. In the prefecture they are a winter staple rather than a novelty, sold in oyster restaurants, kaki-goya sheds and ordinary teishoku counters between roughly October and March. The local convention is a coarse panko crust and a very short fry, so the oyster keeps its liquor rather than shrinking into the coating.
Common allergens: Shellfish, Gluten, Egg
Tip from the editors. Ninety seconds is the whole cook. Any longer and the oyster tightens and gives up the liquor that makes the dish.
Kakibune Kanawa has farmed its own oysters since 1867 and serves them from a boat moored on the Motoyasu river in central Hiroshima, raw and in courses.
Order: The kaki-zukushi oyster course, 9,000 yen on the Seto deck
Tip: Oysters come from the company's rafts off Okurokami island, which is why the raw plates run through the colder months.
Kaki Goya Fukuromachi Umihei Shoten keeps Hiroshima's fisherman-hut oyster format running indoors all year, one kilo of shells steamed in a can.
Signature: Can-steamed oysters, Fried oysters, Oyster hot pot
Order: The kilo of oysters steam-grilled in a can over the burner
Tip: Unlike the seasonal huts on the waterfront this branch runs year round, but the oysters are still plumpest between October and March.
More cities are in research. Want kaki furai covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.