Fried ── Fried dishes
Ganmodoki
fried tofu and vegetable fritter
Tofu mixed with vegetables, rolled into balls, and fried. Known in Kyoto as hirousu or hiryōzu, thought to have taken this form through the vegetarian temple-cooking idea of a filling dish made without meat.
- Origin: Kyoto City, Kyoto
- About 370 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Tofu, mountain yam, and chopped vegetables are mixed, rolled into balls, and fried. The surface fries up crisp while the inside keeps tofu's soft, airy texture, with carrot and lotus root offering crunch as you bite through. In Kyoto it's also known as hirousu or hiryōzu, and it's often simmered slowly in dashi rather than eaten straight from the fryer.
How it's made
Drained tofu is mashed and mixed with mountain yam, egg, and chopped carrot, lotus root, burdock, and mizuna, then rolled into balls and fried. Prepping the vegetables is said to take real effort, and because the dish grew out of vegetarian temple cooking, it's often made without any animal ingredients at all. It's eaten hot from the fryer, or simmered again in dashi the next day to soak up more flavor.
Why it took this shape
In Kyoto, the names hirousu and hiryōzu have long been the everyday terms for this dish, placed within a wider culture of Kyoto tofu processing. The idea behind vegetarian temple cooking — building a satisfying dish without meat — is thought to have led, through the trick of folding vegetables into tofu and frying it, to this particular form.
Before You Go
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 Kyoto
- Chirimen SanshoChirimen-jako simmered sweet-salty with fresh sansho peppercorns in sake, soy sauce, and mirin — a Kyoto side dish said to have begun as a cook's gift in the mid-Showa era. The peppercorns leave a sharp, fragrant aftertaste.
- Ebiimo to Bodara no TaitanEbi-imo, a striped Kyoto heirloom taro named for its shrimp-like ridges, simmers together with bodara, cod dried in Hokkaido. Gelatin from the dried cod is said to keep the taro from falling apart, while the taro's bitterness softens the cod — a textbook 'deaimon' pairing.
- Fushimi no SakeSake from Fushimi in Kyoto, a district fed by groundwater from the Momoyama plateau. Its water is said to be softer than Nada's, giving a round mouthfeel and gentle, full sweetness that overlaps with the profile recognized under the GI Kyoto geographical indication.
- Hamo no YakimonoPike conger, riddled with fine bones, is scored with the skilled honekiri cut and then grilled — teriyaki-glazed or salted — in Kyoto cuisine. Said to have taken root in landlocked Kyoto because the hardy fish could be carried in alive, it is also a festival food for Gion Matsuri, nicknamed the 'hamo festival.'
- Kamonasu DengakuKamonasu, a round Kyoto heirloom eggplant over 10cm across sometimes called the 'queen of eggplants,' is sliced and pan-fried in plenty of oil, then topped with a sweet miso reduced with sake and mirin. It is said to have long been grown on the alluvial fan of Kamigamo.
- Kibi Mochi, Awa Mochi, Tochi MochiIn the mountain villages of Tanba, where rice alone was hard to grow, mochi has long been pounded with millet, foxtail millet, or horse chestnuts mixed into the sticky rice. Once a stand-in for a rice-scarce staple, its rustic flavor is now valued again and sold by confectioners at year's end.