Fermented & preserved
Hamana Miso
Hamana miso — a sweet-fermented paste of malted rice, beans, and pickled eggplant
Sweet rice-malt amazake is mixed with bean koji, soy sauce, and salted eggplant, weighted down and left to ferment for about twenty days — a winter keeping food said to descend from 'hama-natto', a favorite of Tokugawa Ieyasu, adapted to Fukui's climate. It pairs well with sake.
- Origin: Fukui
- About 320 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Sweet amazake made from rice malt, worked with soybean malt, soy sauce, salted eggplant, and shiso seeds into a fermented paste eaten only in winter, so amazake's faint sweetness meets the malt's savory depth and soy sauce's aroma, with the eggplant's crunch trailing behind. It's said to go equally well with rice or a drink, and some spread it on mochi or cucumber for a snack.
How it's made
Amazake made from hot water and rice malt is simmered gently to keep it from souring, then, once cooled, mixed thoroughly with soybean malt seasoned in soy sauce. Desalted, blanched eggplant is folded in along with shiso seeds, ginger, white sesame, and chili, lightly weighted down, and stirred once a day — said to taste best after about twenty days of fermenting.
Why it took this shape
The dish is said to trace back to a feudal lord who brought Hamamatsu's food culture into Echizen in the Edo period, which is said to have reshaped itself over time into a fermented food suited to seeing out Fukui's winters. Built mainly from soybeans, it's said to have been kept as a valued winter protein source, and homemade batches are said to have once been shared during New Year's house calls.
Dishes in the same style
- Achara ZukeWhite melon, eggplant, and lotus root are pickled in a sweet vinegar spiked with red chili — the name is said to trace to the Portuguese 'achar', carried in through Hakata Bay's old trade, and an odd number of vegetables is used for Obon hospitality.
- AhodakiOld takuan pickle, once its flavor and aroma have faded, is desalted and simmered again in soy sauce, a pantry staple from the Hokusei area. Its name — playfully self-deprecating, roughly "doing a foolish thing" — nods to eating it well past its prime, a frugal way to waste nothing.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Fukui
- Atsuage no NitaThick fried tofu, blanched and scored with a cross cut, is simmered sweet-savory in dashi, soy sauce, and mirin with a dash of ginger juice. Fukui leads the country in fried-tofu consumption, and this dish is said to have moved from a Honkoko feast dish into everyday cooking.
- BokkakeThick fried tofu, burdock, and shirataki noodles are simmered in a bonito broth and poured hot, broth and all, over freshly cooked rice — eaten for over a century since the early 1910s. In Katsuyama it is said to take a chazuke-like turn, topped with fish cake and mitsuba.
- ChameshiRoasted soybeans are steeped in hot roasted barley tea, and rice is then cooked in that same tea — a dish from the old post town of Imajo, said to descend from Nara's 'nara-chameshi'. It is said to be indispensable at memorial services, Honkoko, and for daughters visiting home.
- Choju NamasuGround sesame is worked into a paste with miso, thick fried tofu, mustard, and vinegar, then tossed with shredded daikon, carrot, and snap peas — a New Year salad whose name literally wishes long life, also said to appear at memorial services and Honkoko.
- Decchi YokanSweet red bean paste is set with agar, sugar, and a pinch of salt into a thin, water-yokan-like winter confection. It is said to have begun when a young apprentice, home for New Year from a Kyoto shop, stretched a bar of yokan with water to share with neighbors, eaten by the kotatsu.
- Echizen Oroshi SobaA cold soba from Echizen, Fukui, topped with grated daikon and bonito flakes. It is said to originate with a soba maker a local lord brought from Kyoto to promote buckwheat as an emergency food crop.