In Tottori, flying fish are called ago. One explanation for the word is that they are so good your ago, your jaw, drops off. The official line is that nobody actually knows where the term came from, and the prefecture's own material says as much, plainly, rather than reaching for the more entertaining answer.

Ago chikuwa is the paste of that fish, wrapped around a rod and grilled over a flame. Set beside an ordinary chikuwa on a plate, it is noticeably darker in color. Put a knife through one and it cracks audibly, and that sound is what the surface does when it has been properly grilled over fire rather than steamed.

Flying fish are at their best from spring on into summer, which is when they spawn, so this is eaten here as the particular flavor that announces early summer has arrived.

You can tear pieces off it with your fingers, or simply bite straight into the whole thing, and it goes with wasabi soy sauce or with ginger soy sauce as something to drink over. What stayed with me was the honesty of the etymology. A pleasing story exists, the fish may well be named after a jaw dropping, and the people who could have simply asserted it declined to.