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Hirame (Flounder) Sushi

Hirame (Flounder) / Engawa

White Fish & Salmon

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Order Pleuronectiformes, Family Paralichthyidae

When it comes to hirame, the engawa is famous. Engawa is the collective name for the muscles that move a fish's fins, and it is taken from both flounder (hirame) and right-eye flounder (karei). The hirame is distributed in the western Pacific, and large ones reach a total length of 1 meter and a weight of about 10 kilograms.

The engawa, famous as part of the hirame, is the muscle that moves the fins; the hirame and karei, which move their fins a great deal, have long engawa. The name comes from its resemblance to the engawa (veranda) of a house, and four pieces of engawa can be taken from a single fish. Generally, engawa refers to the engawa of the hirame, but the hirame's is sometimes called "hirame no engawa" and the karei's is called simply "engawa." The hirame and karei have a similarly flat shape, and some exceed 1 meter. They can change the color of their bodies, matching the color of the seabed when not hidden in the sand. They are caught throughout Japan, especially in large numbers in the Tohoku region and Hokkaido, but recently they have also been imported from abroad. The lifespan of the hirame is short, only a few years, but unlike the karei, its fast growth makes it easy to farm. As the saying goes, "hirame on the left, karei on the right": with some exceptions, the hirame has both eyes on the left side of its body and the karei on the right side. Both karei and hirame, as juveniles, have eyes separated on the left and right like ordinary fish and are not flat, but as they grow, the eyes gradually move to one side and the body becomes flat. The peak season for hirame is from late autumn to winter, and in January and February it is called "kan-hirame" (cold-season flounder) and is rich in fat; the engawa portion too offers the umami of the fat and a chewy texture along with its refined flavor.

The Engawa of Hirame and Karei

Because only about four pieces' worth of engawa can be taken from a single fish, making it precious, sushi restaurants that serve hirame engawa are often high-end establishments. What is used at conveyor-belt sushi restaurants and the like is mainly the engawa of karei such as Greenland halibut (karasugarei), arrowtooth flounder (aburagarei), and Pacific halibut (ohyo), often imported in packs. In the past, the engawa of karei was sometimes labeled as hirame engawa, but a revision of the law made this no longer possible, and at conveyor-belt sushi restaurants the karei engawa is now often called simply engawa. Between the engawa of hirame and karei, the hirame's is said to have a more refined umami, while the karei's is bland and oily. For this reason, karei engawa sushi sometimes has a shiso leaf (oba) or the like placed between the topping and the rice to make it lighter.

The Buri Changes Its Name According to Size

Characteristics of the "Hirame Person"

A "hirame person" is someone interested only in their own advancement, who cares only about pleasing their boss, and who is two-faced in a way that makes it hard to tell what they really think. This expression was born from the hirame's habit of always facing upward and from the fact that you cannot see the color of its belly.
Unlike hirame sushi, the hirame person is disliked everywhere. It is something one would not want to become.