Mikawaya Ebi Mirin Yaki Shrimp Crackers

Mirin is the ingredient doing the work here.

It is a sweet rice wine used almost exclusively in cooking — brewed rather than distilled, low in alcohol, and valued in Japanese kitchens for the glossy lacquer it gives to anything glazed and grilled.

Teriyaki depends on it. So does the sauce on eel.

Mikawaya Seika builds the tare for these crackers on mirin and soy sauce together, with sugar, salt and a stock base of niboshi sardine and katsuobushi behind them, then bakes it onto the surface.

What that produces is a different animal from the company’s pale, brittle Ebi Mangetsu discs.

These are large, flat sheets — the Japanese word is ōban, big-format — with a dark amber glaze and enough substance to bite through properly.

Mikawaya has been making them for over sixty years and describes the flavour as mukashi natsukashii, the nostalgic taste of an earlier era.

The shrimp sits underneath as a savoury foundation rather than leading, with aosa seaweed and a touch of chilli working through the sweetness.

Sweet, salty, and deeply umami, in that order.

Seven sheets to a bag, with a 120-day shelf life.

They are substantial enough that Japanese households cook with them: Mikawaya’s own recipe pages use them crumbled into okonomiyaki and pressed into onigiri, which gives some sense of how sturdy the flavour is.

On their own, they go with green tea in the afternoon and beer in the evening.

About this item
Item Name : Ebi Mirinyaki
Brand : Mikawaya Seika
Item Form : Starch Cracker
Allergens: Shrimp, wheat, soybean
Number of Items : 7 Counts (Pack of 1)