Fried
Miso Poteto
Miso Poteto — deep-fried battered potato glazed with sweet miso sauce
Boiled potato coated in batter, deep-fried and glazed with a sweet-savory miso sauce, from the Chichibu area. It began simply as hearth-roasted potato brushed with miso, then went national after winning a 2009 local-food contest.
- Origin: Saitama Chichibu
- About 70 km northwest of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Boiled, battered, and fried potato is topped with a sweet-savory miso sauce. The mealy potato inside its crisp coating takes on the thick, clinging miso sauce, giving a simple dish that is said to be hard to stop eating, equally at home as a snack or a side dish.
How it's made
Miso is mixed with sugar and sake to make the sauce. Peeled potato, cut into bite-sized pieces, is boiled, coated in a batter of flour and water, and deep-fried. While still hot and crisp, the sauce is poured over, sometimes brightened with yuzu or dried seaweed, with the batter's thickness said to vary by household.
Why it took this shape
In the hilly Chichibu region, where flat farmland is scarce, dry-field crops like potato are said to have long been a familiar staple. The dish is said to have begun with small potatoes roasted over the hearth and brushed with miso sauce, eaten as a snack between farm chores, and is now also served in school lunches and local restaurants.
Before you go
- Tanabata and festival food stallsA guide to the somen said to be eaten on Tanabata, and to festival-stall staples like yakisoba, takoyaki, candy apples, and shaved ice.
- 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.
- At yatai food stalls and while eating on the streetPaying and ordering at a yatai food stall, handling your trash, the etiquette of eating as you walk, and how to step into a Hakata yatai.
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 Saitama
- Sakekasu Miso RamenA winter-only ramen from Ageo City, where sake lees from a long-running local brewery are worked into a Chinese restaurant's miso broth. The lees' depth and aroma layer over the miso's savoriness, leaving a mellow finish that warms the body in the cold months.
- Dojo NiPond loach caught in the paddies of eastern Saitama, simmered sweet and savory with shaved burdock, from a land fed by the Arakawa and Tone rivers. Rich in nutrients, it was valued as a tonic and a food for pregnant women.
- Gyoda Furai"Furai" from around Gyoda, Saitama, despite its name, isn't fried — it's grilled. Chopped scallion and pork go on a wheat-flour batter cooked on a griddle, an okonomiyaki-like snack said to have caught on with the women working the town's tabi-sock factories.
- Higashimatsuyama YakitoriPork cheek grilled over charcoal and brushed with a spicy miso sauce.
- HiyajiruSesame and miso ground in a mortar, mixed with summer vegetables like cucumber and shiso, then chilled with cold water. It serves as a dipping broth for udon in noodle-loving Saitama, and Kawajima town calls it suttate.
- Iga ManjuA sweet bean bun wrapped in red rice and steamed, said to originate in Konosu. Named for its resemblance to a spiky chestnut burr, it balances a sweet-salty flavor with a chewy bite.