If you’re browsing the stalls (yatai) from a Japanese festival (matsuri) and feel the appetizing smell of grilled fish, chances are that you found grilled ayu… a popular delicacy in Japan.

Ayu is a fresh water fish and, like the koi, a symbol of courage and perseverance, because it swims against the current. It is a hard to catch fish and, besides fly fishing, old traditional methods, like cormorant fishing, are still used in some places in Japan.

Ayu is also known as sweet-fish, because of its deliciously sweet taste. One of the most popular cooking methods is to grill it with salt over a charcoal fire (Ayu no shio yaki), like in this photo taken during the New Year’s celebrations at the Senso-ji Temple in Tokyo.

Salt grilled ayu (ayu no shio yaki)

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