Photo= Thick, succulent Bo-dara were bid on, one after the other by brokers. The market has become animated with the advent of New Year's food ingredients (November 11, First Central Municipal Wholesale Market, Shimogyo Ward, Kyoto)

The auction of "Bo-dara," or dried cod, an indispensable ingredient in Kyoto's traditional New Year's food, began on November 11, at the First Central Municipal Wholesale Market in Shimogyo Ward, Kyoto. As broker after broker made successful bids for an array of New Year's delicacies, the market came to life as it heads into the close of the year.

Bo-dara is a preserved food made from dried Pacific cod. In Kyoto, many families eat it after simmering it with "Ebi-imo," or a sort of taro. The demand for Bo-dara has been shrinking recently due to its time-consuming preparation and the increasing popularity for fresh cod. Nonetheless, it is said that the Kyoto market deals with 20 percent of the total produced in Japan.

This year the market received approximately nine tons of Bo-dara produced in Wakkanai, Hokkaido. The amount was approximately one ton more than last year. They were classified by size into "extra-large," "very large" and "large" for the auction. With the starting signal at 9:00 a.m., about 40 brokers checked the quality of succulent flesh, wrote a price on a sheet of paper, and put it into that item's box. Then the successful bidders were determined one after another.

The wholesale price for the extra-large per kilogram was from 5,184 to 7,668 yen, on par with last year. The products are expected to be on department store and supermarket shelves at the end of this month.