Console yourself with dessert: the fermented-rice egg-drop soup tastes, intriguingly, like a bowl of lumpy, cold sake.

NEWYORKER: Biang!

But those who want fish have an exciting option in hanabiwan, which mixes sashimi with more of that mountain yam, plus other mucilaginous ingredients, like fermented soybeans, egg, and okra.

NEWYORKER: Ootoya