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08 — Food
Tosa's food culture reflects its coastline — the warm Kuroshio Current running offshore brings bonito close to shore twice a year, and the region's generous “sara-bachi” serving platters reward a crowd, not a single diner.
The classic method sears bonito fillets over a fast, very hot straw fire — straw burns hotter and faster than charcoal, searing the surface in seconds while leaving the inside raw, and imparting a faint smoky aroma that's part of the dish's identity. It's traditionally credited to Sakamoto Ryoma's era, though the specific straw technique as practiced today is more likely a 20th-century refinement of older raw-fish customs.
A sara-bachi spread piles sashimi, katsuo, and other dishes onto one very large shared platter, meant to be passed around a table rather than portioned per guest — a format that mirrors Tosa's famously hard-drinking, convivial banquet culture, including drinking games played with cups shaped so they can't be set down until emptied.