Shirauo (Whitebait) Sushi

Shirauo / Japanese icefish / Salangid

White Fish & Salmon

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Order Osmeriformes, Family Salangidae, Genus Salangichthys

Shirauo is a general term for fish of the genus Salangichthys in the family Salangidae, but it can also refer to one species among them, the shirauo (icefish). It lives in brackish waters from Southeast Asia to eastern Siberia, and has a semi-transparent, slender wedge shape 5 to 10 centimeters long.

Shirauo refers to fish of the genus Salangichthys in the family Salangidae, and the domestic edible types are mostly the shirauo and the Ishikawa shirauo. They are caught in Hokkaido, Aomori, Saitama, Shimane, and other prefectures, but because the domestic ones are relatively high-priced, imported products such as those from China's Yangtze River are often used at conveyor-belt sushi restaurants and the like. The lifespan of the shirauo is short at one year, and it spawns in spring and ends its life. While alive it is semi-transparent, but it turns white when it dies, which is why it is called shirauo ("white fish"). It is extremely delicate and dies as soon as it is lifted out in a net, so it almost never circulates in a live state. Small shirauo are about the size of a little finger, and they grow larger as winter approaches, but even fully grown they are only 5 to 10 centimeters. Those 2 to 4 centimeters long that hatched in summer and those around 4 to 5 centimeters in late autumn also appear on the market, but generally the larger ones are more valuable. Shirauo sushi has long been one of the representative sushi toppings of Edomae sushi. There are records of people catching shirauo with nets as they swarmed up the Sumida River to spawn in spring, making it a seasonal feature of spring in Edo.

Various kinds of shirauo sushi

Shirauo sushi is served in various forms such as raw, steamed, and boiled. Generally the warship roll (gunkanmaki) is the mainstream, but at high-end sushi restaurants, three or four of them are sometimes hand-pressed in a raft-like arrangement. The shirauo must wait from winter to early spring to reach a size that can be hand-pressed, and it is said that being able to hand-press shirauo without breaking the flesh marks a full-fledged chef.

The difference between shirauo, shirouo, and shirasu

Shirauo (icefish), shirouo (ice goby), and shirasu (whitebait) are easily confused because their names and appearances are similar, but all three are different fish.
The shirauo belongs to the order Osmeriformes, family Salangidae, while the shirouo belongs to the order Perciformes, family Gobiidae, and if you look closely their shapes are completely different too. Shirasu is a general term for white juvenile fish and often refers to the juveniles of the sardine family.
The shirouo is sometimes written with characters that can also be read as "shirauo," so it is especially confusing, but unlike the shirouo, which is often eaten in the "dancing" (live-eating) style, the shirauo dies as soon as it is lifted out in a net, so it almost never appears on the market in a live state.