Noto Fish-Sauce Hot Pot (いしる鍋, Ishiru Nabe)

Ishiru makes people nervous before they taste it. A fish sauce made from squid sounds forceful, and it can be, if you pour it in like soy sauce and walk away. Use it as we do in Noto, a little at a time, and it gives the pot a clean sea-depth that salt alone cannot manage.

The dish is not complicated. Make a clear dashi, season it lightly with sake and ishiru, then simmer seafood and winter vegetables in the order they need. The one detail that decides it is restraint: ishiru is seasoning, not soup base. Let the dashi carry the broth, and let the fish sauce darken the edge.

Choose seafood that looks glistening fresh and smells clean, not loud. Cod, squid, shrimp, clams, yellowtail, or local white fish all suit the pot when they are at their prime, shun. Add hakusai, leeks, daikon, mushrooms, and tofu, and leave each piece enough room to cook cleanly. Nothing hidden under sauce. The broth should taste like the coast after a cold wind has passed over it, not like a bottle tipped too boldly.