Fish Cake with Swirl

It's fish paste, steamed into a log and cut into slices. Narutomaki belongs to the kamaboko family, Japanese foods made from white fish minced into a smooth paste, seasoned, shaped and cooked. For narutomaki, a layer of paste dyed pink is rolled inside white paste, so every slice cut from the log shows a spiral. The result is firm and bouncy rather than flaky, with a gentle, slightly sweet fish flavour, and it arrives already cooked.

Its home is the ramen bowl, where a slice sits on top beside the egg, pork and spring onion, adding a bite of seafood and a dot of colour. You will also meet it in udon and soba soups and other Japanese dishes, though plenty of ramen bowls skip it. The name is usually traced to the Naruto Strait between Shikoku and Awaji Island, famous for its tidal whirlpools; the spiral in the slice is said to echo them. The real slice has a wavy edge, and most emoji designs draw that too.

What does 🍥 mean when someone sends it?

Usually ramen, or Japanese food in general, served with a wink. Next to 🍜 or a dinner plan, 🍥 says "ramen tonight?" or "I'm eating Japanese". On its own it often has nothing to do with food: the pink spiral is a favourite decoration for usernames, bios and captions in the cute pastel style, chosen purely for its looks.

Among anime fans it points to Naruto, the long-running manga and anime about a young ninja, Naruto Uzumaki, whose name recalls both the fish cake and the whirlpool ("uzumaki" is Japanese for whirlpool) and who famously loves ramen. In a chat about anime, 🍥 is shorthand for that series or its hero. Outside Japan the most common misunderstanding is thinking it's a sweet: a marshmallow, a lollipop head or a boiled candy. Nobody will mind if you reply with a dessert emoji, but you will have missed the fish.