Fermented & preserved
Kohada no Awazuke
Kohada no Awazuke — vinegared gizzard shad cured with millet
Kohada, salted and cured in vinegar, is layered with steamed millet dyed yellow with gardenia — the fish is chosen for its status as an auspicious shusse-uo, a species that changes name as it grows, and the vinegar is kept strong enough to hold up packed in a New Year's tiered box.
- Origin: Tokyo
What it's made of
Gizzard shad is salt-cured and vinegared, then layered alternately with steamed millet dyed yellow with gardenia fruit. The tartness of the vinegar, the sweetness of the millet, and the sharpness of ginger and chili build up in layers, shifting in flavor with every bite. Because gizzard shad is a fish that changes its name as it grows, using it is said to carry an auspicious meaning fitting for a New Year's dish, prized as an item that brightens the second tier of the osechi box.
How it's made
The head, innards, and bones of the gizzard shad are removed, and the fish is salt-cured before being pickled in vinegar. Steamed millet is cooled and mixed with minced ginger and sliced chili, then layered alternately in a container with the vinegared fish. It can be eaten after just a few hours, but resting it for two to three days is said to let the flavors settle, and using a stronger vinegar is said to further extend how well it keeps.
Why it took this shape
Using gizzard shad, a fish whose name changes as it grows, is said to have carried an auspicious meaning fitting for a New Year's dish. Pairing it with millet dyed yellow is said to represent a wish for a bountiful harvest of the five grains, and because it is packed into a tiered box meant to keep for days, using extra-strong vinegar to boost its keeping quality is also said to have been worked in, a dish said to have long supported the New Year's table through to today.
Before you go
- Osechi and zoni for the New YearA guide to the meaning behind osechi's tiered boxes, the regional differences in zoni (square vs. round mochi, clear vs. miso broth), and the nanakusa-gayu custom.
- Setsubun: ehomaki and lucky beansA guide to ehomaki, the uncut sushi roll said to be eaten facing a lucky direction on Setsubun, and to mamemaki, the bean-throwing custom with roasted lucky beans.
- Food for Hinamatsuri and Tango no SekkuA guide to the chirashi sushi and hina-arare eaten at Hinamatsuri, and the kashiwa mochi and chimaki eaten at Tango no Sekku — festivals wishing for children's healthy growth.
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 Tokyo
- Abura SobaNo broth is poured at all — noodles are tossed in a soy-and-sesame-oil tare pooled at the bottom of the bowl, said to have started at shops in the Musashino area in the late 1950s, with vinegar and chili oil stirred in partway through.
- Ajitsuke NoriSheet nori brushed with a soy-and-sugar seasoning and toasted crisp, said to have been devised as a gift for an imperial visit to Kyoto in the Meiji era. Its snap gives way to a burst of flavor and aroma.
- Anago ZushiConger eel, simmered sweet and savory, is laid over sushi rice and brushed with a reduced glaze called tsume — a staple Edomae topping from a fish that thrived in Tokyo Bay's nutrient-rich waters, its slick skin demanding a sushi chef's careful hand to clean.
- AnmitsuCubes of agar jelly topped with red peas, sweet bean paste, and dark syrup. Said to have begun when a Ginza sweets shop in the early Showa era added its own bean paste to the simpler "mitsumame" — jelly and peas in syrup — marking a point where wagashi met café culture.
- Asakusa shichimiA seven-spice chili blend from a shop tracing back to 1625 in Asakusa's old Yagenbori district, often described as the origin point of shichimi togarashi. The neighborhood's history as a hub for medicinal-herb wholesalers is credited with shaping a blend informed by traditional Chinese medicine, and the shop is known for custom-mixing blends to order.
- Bettara-zukeDaikon salted first, then pickled sweet in rice malt and sugar — said to descend from a lightly pickled daikon once sold at Edo's ebisu-kō market. The rice malt gives it a natural sweetness, and it still headlines Nihonbashi's autumn "Bettara Market."