【Reading】あにき

【English Name】Aniki / Old sushi toppings.

One of the industry jargon terms (fucho) used not only at sushi restaurants and fish shops but throughout the food and restaurant industry in general.

It has two broad meanings. One is ingredients that remained unsold from the previous day's purchase and were carried over to the next day. The other refers to, among the same neta, those that were prepared earlier—that is, the older ingredients.

Because "ani (elder brother)" means "one born earlier," by extension things that were "received or prepared earlier" came to be called aniki. As an antonym, some shops call newly arrived ingredients "otouto (younger brother)."

Among sushi chefs it is used routinely in forms such as "use the aniki first," functioning as a practical word for thoroughly enforcing freshness management and first-in-first-out inventory handling. It is also widely understood in business types handling perishable foods, such as fish shops, greengrocers, and butchers.