Salt-Grilled Sanma (秋刀魚の塩焼き, Sanma no Shioyaki)

Sanma tells us autumn has arrived before any calendar does: a narrow silver fish, fattened by cold water, going to the grill whole. The plate can make a new cook hesitate. Head, tail, bones, bitter liver, all of it looking more like a test than dinner. It isn't. Shioyaki means salt-grilled, and the method is as plain as its name.

The stake is the fish at its shun, its prime. Choose sanma that looks glistening fresh, with clear eyes, metallic skin, and a belly that is tight and clean. If the belly is soft or sour, don't hide it under soy. Change the dish. For 本物 (honmono, the real thing) Sanma no Shioyaki, we leave the liver in because its clean bitterness belongs to the autumn fat; remove it and you make a gentler plate, but not quite this one.

The one detail that decides the cooking is dryness on the skin. Salt the fish, wait until it beads with moisture, then blot it before the hot grate. Salt seasons, yes, but here it also pulls water to the surface, so the skin can blister and char instead of clinging and tearing. Serve with grated daikon and sudachi. The daikon catches the oil, the citrus cuts through it, and the fish remains exactly itself: nothing hidden.