Nekobudashi? 🐱budashi?

Yesterday, I was reading this post about making wafū spaghetti on シカゴの夏は短かすぎ when I came across the following line:

そのままだと若干甘くて、みりんのようなアルコールっぽい匂いが少しするんです。なので、私は茹でたてパスタにバター、フィッシュロウ、ねこぶ出汁、お醤油をグルッと。ねこぶ出汁は里帰りの度、日本にいる姉が持たせてくれるのです。

"As it is, it's a little bit sweet and has a bit of an alcohol-like mirin smell. So, I put butter, fish roe, nekobudashi, and soy sauce around the boiling pasta. The nekobudashi is from my elder sister, who keeps some for me and gives it to me whenever I go back to my hometown."

"The what?" I said to myself. "I've never heard of that."

Turns out I'm not the only one. There's literally nothing about it on the internet in English, and when I searched for it in Japanese, it took me to this page where under the definition section it reads:

ねこぶだしとは、北海道日高産の根昆布を使用した、昆布エキスと鰹節エキスをブレンドした万能だしです。液体タイプなので、料理の際もお湯を沸かして出汁の素を入れてという手間はなく簡単に使うことができます。レシピの一例としては、お鍋、浅漬、卵かけご飯といった和食、塩ラーメン、エビマヨなどの中華、クリームシチュー、ジャーマンポテトなどの洋食、和洋中と様々な料理に使うことができる万能だしです。

"Nekobudashi is an all-purpose dashi blend made from konbu and katsuobushi extracts, with konbu roots from Hidaka in Hokkaidō. Because it's a liquid dashi, you can easily use it by adding it to boiling water without any extra time or effort. It can be used in Japanese hot pot, for making pickles or tamago kake gohan; in shio ramen, mayo shrimp or other Chinese dishes; and cream stew, German potato or other Western dishes--it has a myriad of uses in all kinds of Eastern and Western cooking."

That sounds pretty amazing! I had no idea why I had never heard of it, so I asked my Japanese tutor and she had never heard of it either. She asked me if it had anything to do with cats (猫 neko, hence the pun in the title) and I said it was konbu roots (昆布の根, konbu no ne). I explained it and she had no idea, but she was born in Tōkyō, so obviously it's a regional delicacy.

I checked Rakuten and there's a product page, rated 4.68/5 with thousands of reviews. But shipping liquid internationally would be incredibly expensive, and it's already ¥4,180 for three liters. I tried registering on Rakuten to see exactly how much it would be, but weirdly it wouldn't tell me and I can't believe they'd offer free international shipping. So I left the order sitting uncompleted. Maybe I'll try later, but I suspect I'll have to find another way to get a hold of nekobudashi.

I really want to try it now, though.