Kue is a so high-grade fish that may cost more than 10,000 yen per kilogram.
It is a large fish, generally weighing 4 to 5 kilograms per piece and reaching up to 1 meter long.

 Kue is eaten throughout the year, but in fact it has two best seasons.
One best season is from late October to February, which is well known.
Kue is the most delicious around this time, because they eat plenty of feed and become fatty in preparation for midwinter, when feed will be scarce.

The spawning season of Kue is from May to August, and this period is called "Ura-shun”.
Kue in summer loses its excessive fat as it spawns, so the taste and aroma is not so strong and it has a different deliciousness from the winter season.

Nowadays Kue farming is very popular throughout Japan.
However, Kue is a member of the grouper family that originally inhabits in the southern seas of Japan.
Kue is found mainly in warm-water coastal reefs, from the Boso Peninsula to the southern coast of Kyushu and along the western coast of Kyushu.
The famous places of origin are Tsushima and Nagasaki in Kyushu, Kochi in Shikoku, and Wakayama in Honshu.

Speaking of Kue, many people will probably think of “Kue nabe (Kue hot pot)”.
In winter, Kue brings about so excellent flavor when added to Nabe dishes.
Rich and tasty fat dissolves in the soup and its white meat has elegant flavor and fat.
It has a firm and elastic texture when chewed and you may feel like meat rather than fish.
And tis skin and ara (the bony parts), in particular, contain a lot of high-quality gelatinous material.

   

By the way, in the southern seas, there are many grouper fish, which are related to Kue.
So it is often difficult to tell whether a fish is Kue or not even if you call it "Kue nabe”.
It seems that it would be correct to assume that it is “Nabe of grouper family that grow to be as big as Kue”.

The season of Nabe (hot pot) is approaching, Let’s enjoy Kue nabe, which is full of collagen.

 

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