Welcome to FISH FOOD TIMES
Sep. 2025 issue No.261
Splendid alfonsino
Revised for the first time in 15 years
FISH FOOD TIMES wrote about splendid alfonsino in its October 2010 issue, No. 82, under the theme of "splendid alfonsino seared sashimi." However, at the time, I was only focusing on the popular luxury fish, splendid alfonsino, as "seared sashimi." Because of this, I later realized that the content was too shallow, and I wanted to revise splendid alfonsino at some point.
In the 15 years since then, I have had many opportunities to use splendid alfonsino in connection with my work, and the number of images has gradually increased. However, I couldn't find the right timing to use those images in an article, so it has been dragging on until now.
However, I recently decided to stay in Shimoda City, Shizuoka Prefecture, on my upcoming trip on October 21st, and I learned that Shimoda City is the number one producer of splendida alfonsino in Japan. If that was the case, I decided that it would be a good opportunity to write an article about Splendid Alfonsino in the September issue, while also studying up on the fish before visiting Shimoda City, so I went to my usual store and purchased a large 1.3kg Splendid Alfonsino.
So, while I was researching Splendid Alfonsino, I came across information about Splendid Alfonsino on the Shimoda City Tourism Association website. This content summarizes splendid alfonsino very well, and it's quite good, so I would like to use it first this time, and then I would like to fill in the gaps in the explanation from 15 years ago by writing as much detail as I can about splendid alfonsino.
Splendid Alfonsino in Shimoda
According to the Shimoda City Tourism Association website, Shimoda Port is the port with the largest volume of splendid alfonsino landings in Japan, with an annual landing volume of nearly 1,000 tons, and it is said that 80% of the catch landed in Shimoda is splendid alfonsino. Many fishing boats called "kinme-bune" are moored at Shimoda Port, and the morning market is bustling with activity as people buy and sell splendid alfonsino. Apparently, the floor of the fish market sometimes turns bright red with rows of splendid alfonsino. It wasn't that long ago that fishing for splendid alfonsino began in earnest in Shimoda, and with the standardization of quality and the securing of transportation methods, the brand "Shimoda's splendid alfonsino" has now been established.
The Shimoda City Tourism Association website has the following easy-to-understand information with images about splendid alfonsino, so I would like to reproduce it here on this page to introduce it.
The diagram above is a well-made resource that gives a rough idea of splendid alfonsino, and I have used it in this month's issue.
Splendid alfonsino's distinctive eyes
The most distinctive feature of the splendid alfonsino is its large golden eyes, which are the origin of its name. The eyes of the splendid alfonsino are said to have developed as a result of trying to collect as much light as possible in the dark deep sea, which is 200 to 800 meters deep, in order to survive.
The splendid Alfonsino's eyes have a reflective membrane behind the retina, also known as the tapetum. This reflective membrane, called a tapetum in English, reflects light after it passes through the retina, reactivating the retinal photoreceptors, making the eye appear to glow golden. This phenomenon is not seen in animals that are active in bright places, but is seen in nocturnal animals and deep-sea fish that need to see in places with poor visibility, such as the deep sea. For example, if it is an animal other than a fish, the same phenomenon occurs when a cat's eyes appear to glow at night.
In this month's issue, which is a revival of Splendid Alfonsino, I first wanted to create a product that would highlight these "eyes that emit a mysterious light."
In the past, they have made "fillets with the eyeballs left in" like the one below.
| Splendid alfonsino fillet |
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| October 2015 |
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| January 2016 |
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| May 2019 |
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| August 2020 |
And this time, I made the following products.
The product name is "Splendid alfonsino grilled Kabuto fillets." The process for preparing the grilled Kabuto is as follows.
| Work process of Splendid Alfonsino Kabuto grilling | |
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| 1，Make a cross-coupled cut on the side of the fish collar of the lower body. | ５，Do not cut off the center of the head, but spread it out to the left and right. |
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| ２，Make an incision next to the collar of fish on the upper body side, but do not cut deeply into the center of the head, and separate the head so that the cut edge is as straight as possible. | ６，The product is completed by opening it like a folding screen and spreading it out to the left and right. |
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| ３，The head was separated, being careful to make sure that the area where it was cut was straight. | ７，Sprinkle salt on both sides and grill on low heat for about 10 minutes. |
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| ４，From the back of the head, press the tip of the blade into the center and make a cut. | ８，Arrange on a plate and your splendid Alfonsino Kabuto grill is complete. |
I tried this splendid Alfonsino Kabuto grill, and of course the first thing I put my chopsticks on was the eyeball. The large eyes of the splendid Alfonsino are filled with a thick, gelatinous, transparent collagen, which feels more like tasteless jelly than delicious. I ate the DHA-rich gelatinous part, thinking, "Maybe if I eat this much, my head will feel a little smarter..." The discolored white eyeball in the middle is too hard and inedible, so just to be safe...
Why is splendid alfonsino red?
The second most striking feature of the splendid alfonsino is its vibrant red color. This red color is generally one of the characteristics of deep-sea fish, but why are so many deep-sea fish red? There are the following reasons.
As the depths of the ocean increase, the water absorbs more light, with wavelengths closer to red being absorbed more quickly, and at a depth of about 200 meters, the ocean appears entirely blue, as shown in the diagram below. Let me explain the scientific basis for this, based on materials published by the Niigata Prefectural Science Museum.
Sunlight consists of visible light (light that can be seen with the naked eye), infrared light, and ultraviolet light. Visible light is made up of a mixture of seven broad colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet). When light enters water, it is absorbed by water molecules, but not all colors are absorbed at the same time; water molecules have the property of easily absorbing red and yellow light, and less easily absorbing green and blue light. As you dive deeper into the water, red light disappears the fastest, while blue light reaches even deep into the ocean, so the deep sea is almost entirely blue light with almost no red light.
To give a concrete example that makes this even easier to understand, the Niigata Prefectural Science Museum clearly explains it with the image comparing two apples above. The apple on the left in the image above appears red because it reflects red light, but the apple on the right is hit by blue light, and since there is no red light to reflect, the blue light is absorbed and the apple appears black. Deep-sea fish live in the deep sea, where there is naturally little light, and the darker the surroundings, the darker the red color becomes, making it less noticeable.
In other words, since red fish bodies do not reflect light in the deep sea and are difficult to see from the outside, other deep-sea fish such as blackthroat seaperch, broadbanded thornyhead, spider crab, red snow crab, bluefin sea robin, and northern red shrimp are also generally red.
Why are so many splendid Alfonsinos caught in Shimoda?
As shown in the figure below, Shimoda City has a very high catch of splendid alfonsino, but why is splendid alfonsino, a deep-sea fish, caught in such large quantities?
Splendid alfonsino prefers areas called "Kakeagari" (the slopes of underwater volcanoes, etc.) at depths of 200 to 800 meters. The fact that the ridges (underwater mountain ranges of seamounts) that link the Izu Peninsula and the Ogasawara Islands are ideal fishing grounds for splendid alfonsino can be easily seen from the fact that the fishing grounds and the ridges shown in the two images below almost coincide with each other.
To the east of the Japanese archipelago, the Japan Trench (8,020m at its deepest point) is where the Pacific Plate subducts beneath the Philippine Sea Plate, which carries the Izu Islands and other islands, and is being lifted up by the plate. For example, the Izu Peninsula was an independent island 600,000 years ago and was not originally connected to the Japanese archipelago, but was pushed up by the movement of the two plates and became a peninsula rather than an island. The height of Mount Fuji, the highest in Japan, is also likely due in large part to its being lifted up by the movement of the Pacific Plate.
There are two fishing methods used in the "Kakeagari" fishing grounds, which have an environment favored by splendid alfonsino, as shown in the diagram below. One is vertical line fishing (single line fishing), which involves day trips from fishing ports such as Inatori on the east coast of the Izu Peninsula to nearby fishing grounds, and splendid alfonsino caught using this method are called "ji-kinme." This method seems to often fetch a high price because each fish is handled carefully. On the other hand, fishing boats that travel offshore, such as those from Hachijojima, use bottom longline fishing, which takes around 10 days, and the majority of splendid alfonsino landed in Shimoda are caught using this method and are called "oki-kinme."
If you follow the information we have seen so far, you can probably understand that Shimoda City has the highest splendid alfonsino fishing catch in Japan. Shimoda City is blessed with a unique fishing ground in the nearby sea area, and it seems that they have taken advantage of this to establish the brand "Shimoda's splendid alfonsino."
Is it common sense to make products that make the most of the red color?
As mentioned above, one of the characteristics of splendid alfonsino is its red color, and it may be common sense to make products and dishes that make use of this red color. I have made sashimi and sushi like the one below many times, using the red skin of splendid alfonsino as a yushimo or a yakishimo, and I think that products that make use of the red skin color in this way will definitely look good.
The product image below shows the fillets I made this time, and as expected, the red skin of the splendid alfonsino is a very flashy color, so it stands out very much and has a strong presence when the skin is there.
Basically, Splendid Alfonsino is better when it comes to "products that make use of the red skin," and I have no objection to that. That's fine in itself, but it's not surprising that people say that not much has changed since 15 years ago.
So in this month's issue, I tried removing the red skin from splendid alfonsino to create a skinless product.
| Skinless splendid Alfonsino nigiri sushi without skin making process | |
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| 1，After filling a fish into three pieces, remove the abdominal bones from the lower body. | 5，Make an incision next to the chiai bone. |
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| 2，Since I didn't know how much subcutaneous fat there was, I tried using the uchibiki method to remove the skin. | 6，Remove the chiai bone. |
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| 3，There wasn't much subcutaneous fat, and it seemed like there was more of it in the fish meat itself. | 7，Assume the left position and use only the belly body from the lower part of the fish as the sushi filling. |
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| 4，Place the skin side down. | 8，Make it into nigiri sushi. |
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| Splendid Alfonsino nigiri sushi without skin | |
Next, I will look at sashimi made from the back body of the lower body. This is a little different, but I would like to introduce the "Ashirai" process, which is used to increase the added value of the product.
| Ashirai working process of skinless splendid alfonsino sashimi | |
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| 1，Place the peeled skin into boiling water. | 8，Roll the skin and chop it into thin strips. |
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| 2，Cook thoroughly. | 9，Cut off the ends of the cucumber. |
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| 3，Once the skin is curled, place it in ice water. | 10，Shave the top 2-3 cm from the edge and cut it off. |
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| 4，Place on water absorbent paper. | 11，Repeat the shave five times to form a pentagon. |
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| 5，Cover the top of the skin with absorbent paper. | 12，Make a deep pentagonal cut 1 to 2 cm above the shaved edge, and repeat the same process five times. |
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| 6，Replace the absorbent paper and remove as much water as possible. | 13，Using your fingertips, fold the cucumber from the pentagonal cut to form a flower shape. |
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| 7，You can leave it in the refrigerator for a while to drain the water thoroughly. | 12，I trimmed the base to make it more stable, and the cucumber wasabi container was completed. This time I used chopped peel instead of wasabi. |
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| Skinless splendid alfonsino sashimi | |
This completes the sushi and sashimi of splendid alfonsino without the skin. As mentioned above, splendid alfonsino has always been made with the skin on, so in a way it was a fresh experience.
On the other hand, I still have half of the upper body of the Splendid Alfonsino I bought this time, but I felt that if I removed the skin from this fillet, it would lose its distinctive Splendid Alfonsino character. Therefore, I decided to leave it with the skin on and prepare it as a product, and use it to make a meunière dish.
| Splendid Alfonsino butter ponzu meunière cooking process |
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| 1，Season both sides of the splendid alfonsino skin-on half with salt and pepper. |
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| 2，The flour should be lightly coated to preserve the red skin of the splendid alfonsino. |
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| 3，Cook the skin side until lightly browned. |
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| 4，To make the sauce, add butter, ponzu sauce, sake, and a little mirin to the frying pan with the remaining fish umami. |
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| 5，Finish by pouring the sauce over the dish to create a splendid alfonsino butter ponzu meunière. |
It was actually my first time to eat meunière with butter ponzu sauce, but it was quite delicious. It didn't overpower the splendid alfonsino fish, and I felt it was a meunière that would suit Japanese tastes.
Conclusion
Well, I think it's about time to wrap up this month's issue, but I wonder if I was able to get revenge for 15 years ago...
In fact, there are also other images of the salt-grilled bone-in half fish and the commercialization process of fillets for hotpot. However, I thought that including too many images would blur the focus of what I was trying to say, so I decided to omit them. Still, compared to 15 years ago, I think I was able to introduce some interesting aspects of the splendid alfonsino fish to a certain extent this time. I hope that this article will be of some help to our readers, who work hard every day selling seafood products, in promoting the sale of alfonsino.
In this case, I decided to write this month's issue by referring to various materials listed on the websites of the Shimoda City Tourism Association, Niigata Prefectural Museum of Natural Science, Izu Peninsula Geopark, and others, and learning a lot from them. Thanks to these materials published by various companies online, I think this month's issue has somehow turned out in a reasonable form, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved with each company.
In Shimoda on the evening of October 21st, I plan to enjoy a splendid Alfonsino and other dishes to express my gratitude. Finally, and this is a completely irrelevant point, so please ignore it, but I plan to stay in Yaizu and Numazu on the 20th and 22nd, which are just before and after October 21st, and eat a variety of fish, including deep-sea fish caught in Suruga Bay. I plan to write about this in the November issue, as I do every year, so please look forward to it.
An opinion and the communication are to iinfo@fish food times
Date of updating 1 Sep. 2025
