Kaki furai (fried oyster) (カキフライ)
Kaki furai is a type of fried food. Magaki (Japanese oyster), for which Hiroshima is famous, is usually used for kaki furai, but after its season (from fall to winter), iwagaki (another type of oyster) in turn comes into season (spring to summer), allowing us to eat kaki furai throughout the year.
Although there are various theories as to when and how kaki furai was made for the first time, one of the major views, based on the written record known as the oldest material suggests that in the late Meiji era (1868 to 1912), the time of civilization and enlightenment and the developing period of yoshoku (Western-style meal), Motojiro KIDA, who is believed to have invented cutlet, was experimentally frying all kinds of ingredients, one of which happened to be oyster at 'Rengatei,' a yoshoku restaurant in Ginza, Tokyo, which was founded in 1895.
In Europe, where oyster is generally eaten raw, oyster is not commonly fried in cooking.
In Japan, kaki furai is a popular food, almost always ranked No.1 as a favorite oyster dish in surveys.
How to Cook in a Common Way
One washes oyster with weak salt water.
Draw moisture from the oyster one by one while preheating frying oil to about 160 to 170 degrees Celsius, and simultaneously pour flour, beaten egg and bread crumbs into bowls for coating.
Sprinkle a smidgeon of pepper on the oyster, coat it with the flour, dip it in the beaten egg, and then dredge in the bread crumbs.
Fry the oyster in the preheated fryer at about 160 to 170 degrees Celsius. Wait for 30 to 40 seconds after putting the oyster in the fryer until the oyster becomes brown, turn it over, and fry for another 20 to 30 seconds before taking it out.
How to Eat
It is often served with sliced lemons and topped with tartar sauce. Tartar sauce, Worcester sauce and ponzu sauce, together with special kinds of homemade ingredients if needed, are also used to taste. There is also a dish called kaki-furai don (kaki furai on rice), which is prepared by boiling onions and kaki furai in warishita (stock mixed with soy sauce, mirin and sugar), covering it with egg, and putting it on rice, just like the dish of katsu don (pork cutlet on rice). This is one of the stable items as a topping for curry, just like katsu curry (curry rice with pork cutlet).