lautnusantara.com - Bonito flakes - known as katsuobushi in Japanese - are a strange food upon first sight. They are known to move or dance when used as a topping on foods such as okonomiyaki and takoyaki. The bonito flakes move due to their thin and light structure upon the hot food and are not alive. Here is how the bonito flakes is made,

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1. Start with fresh bonito fish that cut into 3 pieces (right side, left side, and the spine). From 1 fish, we can get 4 pieces of dried bonito or called as Fushi

2. The cut-up pieces of the fish will be placed into a basket called "Nikago" which means 'boiling basket'. The basket then will be put to be boiled; the bonito will be placed in such a way as to boil the fish in the best way. It can't be placed randomly or the fish won't boil correctly.

3. The boiling temperature take at 75-98°C for 1.5 to 2.5 hours. The boiling times can be varied depend on the fish freshness, size and quality are all taken into account when a professional decides each bonito fishes unique boiling time, it can take many years of experience to master this.

4. Once the boiling process is done, the small bones that still left in the flesh are removed by hand with tweezers.

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5. Once the small bones and fish skin is removed, bonito pieces will be smoked. Cherry blossom and oak are often used as the kindling to smoke bonito. This process is repeated between 10 to 15 times.  

6. The fat is then shaved off from the surface of the smoked bonito.

7. The Bonito is then baked under the sun for 2 to 3 days, after which some mold is applied on the bonito. This is repeated a few times. After this whole process is completed, 5kg of bonito fish only becomes around 800-900g of bonito flakes. This whole process takes between 5 months and 2 years. 

8. Dried bonito is shaved with special shaver, which way you shave affect flakes, if its shaven incorrectly, it can become powder. 

The classic bonito you can currently purchase in shops are flakes that are dried bonito shaved with this special shaver.

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