Fried ── Fried dishes
Beni Shoga Ten
Beni shoga ten — deep-fried red pickled ginger
Thin slices of red ginger, pickled in plum vinegar, are battered and deep-fried. The plum vinegar's tang and the ginger's bite are said to suit drinks well, and the fritter appears as a one-sen tempura in Sakunosuke Oda's 1940 novella 'Meoto Zenzai,' evidence of how long it has fed ordinary Osakans.
- Origin: Osaka
- About 400 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
This tempura coats thin slices of red pickled ginger in batter and fries them. The tang of the plum vinegar and the sharp bite of the ginger meet the batter's toasty fragrance, and its vivid red is said to stand out and stir the appetite among tempura that otherwise runs mostly brown and yellow. Long loved in Osaka, Nara, Wakayama, and the wider Kinki region, it's said to be an ideal accompaniment to sake, and it's said to be gaining renewed recognition as a distinctly Osaka regional dish.
How it's made
Red pickled ginger is coated in tempura batter and fried. It's sometimes fried whole and sometimes in thin slices or as a kakiage fritter, taking various forms, it's said. Some people enjoy it with sauce, it's said. Found without fail in the tempura corner of every prepared-food shop and supermarket across the prefecture, it's said to be a flavor familiar to Osaka natives, its crisp, fragrant fry against ginger's bite said to be the appeal.
Why it took this shape
Red pickled ginger is said to be made by reusing the plum vinegar left over from making umeboshi to pickle ginger in, and it's said to have long been loved in Osaka and across the Kinki region. A novel published in 1940 depicts a street vendor frying burdock, lotus root, taro, mitsuba, konnyaku, red ginger, dried squid, and sardines as one-sen tempura, suggesting it was already a food of ordinary Osakans by the early Showa era. It's thought to be a dish born of the idea of making full use of an affordable ingredient without waste.
Before you go
- How to use a convenience storeA quick guide to choosing rice balls and hot snacks, buying coffee, paying by cash, IC card, or tap payment, using the eat-in corner, and sorting your trash — the basics for a first visit.
- Takeout and convenience store customsHow to answer "Shall I warm it up?", choosing chopsticks and a paid plastic bag, saying whether you'll eat in or take out, handling trash and eating while walking, and the different tax rate for takeout versus eating in.
Dishes in the same style
- Agemaki Yuba no NimonoFresh yuba sheets are layered, rolled into a log, sliced into rounds, and deep-fried before a slow simmer in a light broth — a Nikko dish built on the region's rippled yuba-making craft, served at New Year's and celebrations.
- Aji FryFilleted horse mackerel breaded in panko and fried. Chiba prefecture holds some of the richest mackerel fishing grounds in Japan, and frying is thought to have taken root as a quick way to eat regional brands like the oily 'golden aji' fresh.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Osaka
- AkanekoSteamed sticky rice pounded with wheat flour is dusted with sugar and soybean flour — also called hangesho mochi, for the rite marking the end of rice planting. The whole-ground wheat flour once left the mochi brownish, said to resemble a cat's round back and give the dish its name.
- BatteraThin slices of vinegared mackerel and white kelp sheet are pressed together in a wooden mold. A sushi shop in Minami-Senba is said to have devised it in 1891, naming it after the Portuguese word for a small boat because the original version, made with konoshiro, resembled one.
- Beni-zuiki to Aburaage no TaitanBeni-zuiki, reddish taro leaf-stalks that can grow to 2 meters tall, is soaked in vinegared water to remove its bitterness, then simmered with fried tofu in dashi and soy sauce — a summer obanzai dish. Its spongy cross-section is said to soak up flavor well, and it has been named a Naniwa specialty product.
- Dote YakiParboiled beef tendon simmers for a long time against a bank of miso and mirin piled around the pan's edge like a levee, or dote. Rich and sweet-savory, it pairs well with drinks and is said to be a beloved downtown Osaka food, with many shops concentrated in the Shinsekai district.
- EhomakiA thick sushi roll eaten whole and in silence while facing the year's auspicious direction on Setsubun, the last day of winter. Its origin is not settled, but theories passed down include a game among the geisha quarters and a prayer for prosperity by Osaka's Semba merchant houses.