Shiga Chef Turns Stinky Sushi into Cheesecake

   Hikone, Shiga Pref., May 12 (Jiji Press)--A restaurant chef in Shiga Prefecture has developed cheesecake using an ingredient of "funazushi," one of Japan's stinky original sushi called narezushi, in an effort to attract more people's attention to the western prefecture's local food.
   Funazushi uses "nigorobuna" crucian carp or other fish caught in Lake Biwa in the prefecture, the country's largest freshwater lake, and rice. As the fish and rice are fermented with salt, it has a strong smell.
   Girasole, the restaurant in the city of Hikone, has been serving the funazushi-derived, Basque-style cheesecake since April 2021.
   The cake was created by owner and chef Shoichi Kojima, 40, who moved to Hikone in 2015 due to marriage. The native of the central prefecture of Yamanashi had not been familiar with funazushi before coming to the city but got hooked on the food after trying to make one at a friend's suggestion.
   To develop a recipe, he adopted a local lake fish broker's advice that powdered "ii," or funazushi's fermented rice, be used.

(2025/05/12-19:09)