Shirasudon (しらす丼, whitebait rice bowl)

Shirasu are small enough that people mistrust them. A whole bowl of tiny fish looks as if it ought to be difficult, or at least a little stern. It isn't. When they're glistening fresh, or gently boiled as kama-age shirasu, they need only hot rice, ginger, and a measured touch of shōyu.

The one detail that decides shirasudon is restraint. The rice should be hot, because its warmth lifts the sea-sweet aroma of the fish, but the shirasu should not be cooked again or drowned. Pour on too much soy and all you taste is salt. Spoon the seasoning around the rice, let the grains carry it upward, and keep the fish pale and clean.

In Sagami and Suruga Bay, nama-shirasu, raw whitebait, is a spring pleasure when the boats have just come in. Away from that coast, kama-age is the honest choice, not a lesser one. We serve it as donburi, a rice bowl, plain enough for a weeknight and clear enough to expose the cook. Nothing hidden, which is good news here: there is hardly anything to do.