Golden Brown Fish Cakes

Satsuma-age, Japanese fish cakes, were invented in Satsuma, the provincial name of present-day Kagoshima Prefecture, on the southern island of Kyushu. Japanese fish cakes remind me of their Thai counterparts, which are served as an appetizer in nearly every Thai restaurant. The concept seems to have been introduced to both countries by the Portuguese and Spanish.

Unlike Thai fish cakes, which contain a substantial quantity of herbs and red chile, the Japanese cakes employ onl