A Taste of Spring: Sansai

Spring Time is Finally Arriving

We probably had one of the coldest winters this year where Omori was well into below freezing for a solid week, which is absolute hell when you’re living in a kominkai or an old Japanese folk house. It is as if they on purposely decided to ignore the whole concept of insulation when building this place. This resulted in many days opening up my refrigerator in the morning and actually feeling the warmth of the fridge on many occasions. As a result, the recent warmth has been much appreciated for my freezing butt in the Japanese countryside. This warmth not only brings down my kerosene bills for my heater, but also brings about one of the symbols of the season of spring in Japan: Sansai.

What is Sansai?

Sansai or 山菜 are young buds of certain edible plants which sprout out during the early to mid spring months and are widely eaten around Japan during this season to enjoy the “flavor of spring.” Some of the most notable Sansai are Fukinoto/Butterbur, Udo/Mountain Asparagus, and Takenoko/Bamboo Sprouts. Many of these Sansai are only eaten in spring because when they fully grow, these plants become too bitter, hard, and acrid. Thus it is very important to consume them while they are still in their early budding phase. If you have a chance to visit a Japanese grocery store, you might find packs of this stuff being sold for a fare bit of money (5-6 fukinoto for 600 yen), and usually not in the best condition. However, here in the countryside we can just scavenge in the local mountains and find this stuff all over the place, as long as you know what you are looking for and where. After living in Omori for a couple years I have found a few of my own secret spots that I like to go to ignorer to scavenge for these spring delicacies!

Fukinoto/蕗の薹

What I found recently is fukinoto, otherwise known as butterbur in English, which are the flower buds of a plant with large lilly pad-like leaves called fuki. These guys are the first Sansai that poke their heads out of the ground starting in late February. They look like a large flower bud sticking out of the grounding have a bright light green color with reddish-purple colors mixed into the tips. When you cut them off from the main root they should have this earthy smell almost like burdock root. There is a whole underground system of thick roots where these buds grow out from, so if you find one, there is a good chance there are many others around it as well. I actually dug up some of these roots and planted them in my quart yard where they are actually starting to grow! I’m looking forward to the day I can harvest a couple buds of Fukinoto right by my house.

Cooking Fukinoto

The most popular and typical way of eating Sansai is by frying them in tempura batter and serving it simply with some salt. Fukinoto specifically has a strong aroma that is a mixture of both earthy and bitter and can stand up to many different flavors. Other than tempura, I enjoy using it in pasta with some bacon, mushrooms and garlic.

More on the way

As we get further into the spring months, there will be more Sansai available in the local mountains around Omori, the next Sansai I will be looking for will be Udo/mountain asparagus and Hamaboufu/ beach silvertops. I’ll post another blog once I get my hands on some!