蒲鉾

Noun

 * 1) kamaboko

Etymology
Compound of. The cattail plant sense is from the way the seed spike resembles a spear. The food-related sense comes from the way the fishcake would often be shaped into a tube on a skewer for roasting, resembling a cattail seed spike in shape and sometimes color. .

Noun

 * 1) the seed spike or raceme of the cattail or bulrush plant
 * 2) a traditional Japanese fishcake: any of various processed seafood products made from surimi, in which whitefish is pureed, formed into loaves, and steamed until firm

Usage notes
Generally written in hiragana due to the high number of strokes and rarity of the characters used in the kanji spelling.

Derived terms

 * : grated, wheat flour, and arrowroot mixed, placed on a board, steamed, and made to look like kamaboko
 * : a domed shape like a kamaboko loaf placed on a board
 * : a rough hut shaped like a kamaboko loaf, made of bent bamboo and covered in rushes
 * : a brass or copper hoop such as for a barrel or that is wide in the middle and narrow at the edges, similar in shape to a kamaboko loaf
 * : tofu mixed with walnuts, placed on a board, steamed, and made to look like kamaboko
 * : surimi mixed with white miso, cracked, minced ginger, soy sauce, and optionally other ingredients, and simmered in saké over low heat
 * : a road where the surface bulges up in the center and is lower on the edges, similar in shape to a kamaboko loaf
 * : a type of bow made of zelkova wood with a layer of bamboo on the outside and similar in shape to a kamaboko loaf, popular from the late Heian period