My friend [Traca](http://seattletallpoppy.blogspot.com/) forwarded me an invitation to a press event:

> As global interest in Japanese cuisine continues to increase, we hope that you will be able to rediscover the greatness of traditional Japanese dried fish, as well as get hints for new creative cooking. We would also be grateful if you would give us your brief opinions on how to make dried fish more popular in America.

There will be a tasting event, it went on to explain, with free samples of the product, and free sake. Sake, I don’t have to tell you, is technically a kind of beer, and free fish and beer sounded like a better than average Monday.

The product, produced in Kihoku-cho, Japan, is microwaveable dried fish. It’s actually semi-dried. The Japanese word is *himono.* You pop the frozen package into the microwave for one minute, then open it and find the steaming fish on a paper tray, ready to eat. Some of the varieties were mackerel, young mackerel, sea bream, and tuna. Many notable people, such as the Consul-General of Japan, had a lot to say about this product, and they said it all in Japanese with no translator, so all I can tell you is that they are in favor of it. (Actually, the guy next to me did some translating, and one of the speakers lamented that young people today in Japan don’t eat enough himono.)

Before the program began, commercials for the product played on TVs. The commercials featured a wildly enthusiastic announcer and people on the street tasting the fish and smiling approvingly.

Then we tasted the fish and filled out a questionnaire, which had questions like, “Which of these products do you think will do best among American consumers?” A Seattle chef, Tak Suetsugu, prepared an elaborate bento box with the fish prepared in various ways–in salads, sushi rolls, pesto sauce, and so on. They sent us home with a goodie bag with four types of fish, including both mackerel and young mackerel. (“Young Mackerel” is a world-class *nom du rap*.)

So, in short, it was like spending the afternoon in one of the loopier alternate universes. I liked the fish, especially the mackerel and the pike. But the chance of anyone in the US buying this product if they are not Japanese-American or a food geek is zero. Not only are they strong-tasting fish–and the drying process greatly intensifies the flavor of the fish–but most of them have *bones.*

But hey, maybe I’ll end up looking like the guy from the LA Times making fun of onigiri in the 50s. The guy who didn’t buy stock in himono when he had the chance.