Grilled
Tofu Dengaku
Tofu dengaku — firm tofu skewered and grilled over charcoal with garlic miso
Firm cotton tofu is skewered and grilled over charcoal, then dipped in garlic miso — grown out of northern Iwate's homemade-tofu culture in a prefecture with high tofu consumption, its miso seasoned seasonally with butterbur sprout or sansho.
- Origin: Iwate
- About 530 km north of Tokyo
What it's made of
A northern Iwate dish of firm cotton tofu cut into rectangles, skewered on bamboo and grilled over charcoal, then typically dipped in garlic miso. The dish is prized for its toasty char and garlic aroma, it is said, and what goes into the miso shifts with the season, butterbur sprouts in spring, sansho leaves in early summer.
How it's made
Firm cotton tofu is cut into rectangles, skewered on sticks traditionally cut from the hajigi shrub, and grilled over charcoal. It's typically dipped in garlic miso, though miso mixed with butterbur sprouts or sansho is also used, it is said. Eating it with grated daikon is said to aid digestion, and a sansho-miso version is sometimes called "kinome dengaku."
Why it took this shape
Cool northern Iwate, ill-suited to rice, is said to have long grown soybeans, which thrive even in harsh conditions. Nutrient-rich tofu earned the nickname "meat of the fields," and a culture of making it by hand at home is said to have taken root, with households sharing their large batches with neighbors. This practice is thought to tie into observances like the December "Daikoku-sama's year-end rite," when a range of soybean dishes are offered.
Dishes in the same style
- Abutte KamoSmall damselfish are salted overnight, then grilled whole, scales and innards left on — a bony fish often passed over elsewhere, but said to have caught on in Hakata Bay after a Meiji-era glut led someone to salt and grill the excess.
- Gohei MochiFreshly cooked non-glutinous rice is pounded, pressed flat on a skewer, and grilled with a miso glaze. Said to have originated in the mountainous Chubu region, it's traditionally made the night before a festival praying for safety in mountain work.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Contrast
- Kurumi TofuGround, strained walnut is thickened with sugar and kudzu starch, set firm and sliced in place of raw fish — a shojin dish from Oshu's Esashi area, served with a sweet miso-and-ginger sauce, made with local "oni-gurumi" walnuts.
- Tofu DengakuFirm tofu is skewered, grilled, brushed with a sweet miso glaze, and grilled again until lightly charred. Popular as a vegetarian dish in temple-dense Shiga, it is traditionally made for Buddhist memorial gatherings and the winter solstice, and was once a specialty along the old Tokaido road.
- Nuppei JiruTofu, dried shiitake and scallion are simmered in a soy broth thickened with grated mountain yam — a close relative of "hachihai-jiru," which uses potato starch instead, made statewide as a Buddhist meat-free dish for rites and ceremonies.
- Oyama no Tofu RyoriTofu dishes from Mount Oyama in Isehara City, made with clear water from the Tanzawa mountains. Served to pilgrims visiting the mountain shrine, it became a local specialty, still enjoyed simply as chilled tofu, hot pot tofu, or grilled tofu with miso.
Also from Iwate
- Azuki BattoRested wheat dough cut into wide noodle strips is served in a sugar-sweetened red-bean broth — made along the Sanriku coast for building-raising and harvest celebrations, with a custom of eating it seven times on the seventh day of Obon for good health.
- Hecchoko DangoDumplings of millet and sorghum flour, each dimpled in the center, are simmered in a sweet red-bean soup — also called "ukiuki dango," a harvest-close treat from rice-poor northern Iwate where they float to the surface as they cook.
- Hina ManjuRice-flour dough tinted with food coloring is wrapped around red-bean paste and shaped into flowers, peaches or rabbits using wooden molds — tied to a doll-viewing custom in Hanamaki's Ohasama area, offered alongside kirisensho at the Girls' Festival.
- Hizu NamasuThin slices of cartilage from a salmon's head — "hizu" — are salted, cured in vinegar and tossed with daikon and carrot namasu — a rare delicacy from just one small part of the fish, a New Year dish where salmon run up Miyako Bay.
- Dento Mochi RyoriAn umbrella term for some 300 ways of dressing mochi — sweet red bean, edamame paste, walnut, natto, zoni and more. A domain-era custom of pounding mochi twice a month left Ichinoseki with a "mochi calendar" of 60-plus occasions a year and a formal ceremonial mochi course still observed today.
- Imo no Ko JiruAutumn taro is simmered with chicken, tofu, daikon and carrot in a soy broth — a fall favorite of the taro-growing Kitakami river valley, still enjoyed at riverside "imoni-kai" gatherings around Kitakami's Futako district.