Salmon roe. Large (.25" approx), nearly transparent red-orange eggs, stronger in flavor that Tobiko or Masago.

Also, Japanese word meaning "how much?"

i.e.
"Sono sakana ga ikura desu ka?"
"How much does that fish cost?"


Hah, I had no idea, seaya. That's kind of funny, because now my example sentence could mean "Is that fish salmon roe?" :) Of course, in regular Japanese writing, that would not be the case. :p

Ikura can mean two things. In the hiragana alphabet, which is the alphabet for sounding out words of internal Japanese origin, it means how much. In the katakana alphabet, which is the alphabet for sounding out words of foreign origin, it refers to salmon roe.

The word ikura in reference to caviar comes from ikra, which is the Russian word for caviar, of which their caviar is often none other than salmon roe.

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