Hotate

Hotate (Mizuhopecten yessoensis) is the Japanese scallop, also called the Yesso or ezo giant scallop, a large, cold water species native to Hokkaido and the Mutsu Bay coast of Aomori, genuinely different from the European great scallop (Pecten maximus) and the smaller queen scallop (Aequipecten opercularis) found in Atlantic conservas. Aomori and Hokkaido account for the great majority of Japan's scallop harvest, and the adductor muscle, kaibashira, is prized on its own, dried, boiled, or roasted with soy and butter. Tinned hotate ranges from plain preparations in water to seasoned formats built around soy sauce and butter, a departure from the olive oil and tomato sauce conventions of Spanish and Portuguese scallop conservas.

How to eat it: straight from the tin, over rice, or finished in a pan with a little of its own liquid and a knob of butter. The muscle itself is the point.