Aji no Tataki (鯵のたたき, Boso chopped horse mackerel)

Aji is a summer fish, and when it's glistening fresh it hardly asks to be cooked. That is the whole pleasure of aji no tataki: bright horse mackerel, ginger, scallion, a little shiso, all cut together until the fish holds the seasonings without becoming a paste. You may look at the word sashimi and think this is the advanced corner of the kitchen. It isn't. The hard part is buying well.

Sourcing first, always. Ask for horse mackerel you would eat raw the day it came in, with clear eyes, firm flesh, and a clean smell. If it smells strongly fishy, change the dish and grill it. Nothing hidden here. Tataki gives you no sauce to hide behind, only the fish and the cut.

The one detail that decides it is the chopping. Use a sharp knife and short, clean strokes, gathering the fish with the aromatics until the pieces are small but still distinct. Pound it into paste and you've made another dish's poor cousin. Leave a little texture, so each bite tastes of cold fish first, then ginger, scallion, and the faint green edge of shiso.

On the Boso Peninsula this belongs to the fisherman's table: quick, direct, eaten with rice and often a spoon of grated daikon to keep the mouth clean. It is weeknight food if the fish is right. Honmono does not need to announce itself loudly. It sits cool on the plate and lets the knife do the seasoning.