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Aka Konnyaku Ni
Aka konnyaku ni — Omi-Hachiman's iron-red konjac simmered in soy sauce
Konjac dyed reddish with iron oxide, a specialty of Omi-Hachiman, is pan-simmered with bonito flakes and soy sauce. The color holds even after cooking, and the dish is a fixture at ceremonial meals and school lunches alike.
- Origin: Shiga Omihachiman
- About 340 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
This dish dry-fries and simmers Omi-Hachiman's signature red konnyaku with bonito flakes, soy sauce, and chili pepper. The konnyaku is dyed red with iron oxide and, notably, doesn't lose its color even after simmering. Without the usual konnyaku smell, and with a fine-grained, springy texture, it's said to have found its way widely into local cooking, even as an ingredient in chirashi-zushi.
How it's made
Red konnyaku is boiled, rinsed in water, cut, washed again, and then dry-fried in a pot. Bonito flakes, soy sauce, mirin, and other seasonings are added, and it's stirred slowly as the flavor works in. Chili pepper is added at the end to finish. Pre-seasoned versions are also sold, and its vivid color is said to make it a favorite in restaurant kitchens as well.
Why it took this shape
One account holds that the reason konnyaku is dyed red here traces back to Oda Nobunaga, who is said to have preferred flashy things and ordered it dyed that way, but no reliable historical record confirms this, and the true reason remains unclear. Grown out of a distinctive processed food particular to the Omi-Hachiman area, it's said to have spread across the prefecture and beyond, prized for its lack of the usual konnyaku smell and its fine, springy texture.
Before You Go
- How to shop at a supermarketHow to choose prepared foods, sashimi, and packaged sushi, when discount stickers tend to appear, region-only specialties, buying by weight, the checkout and bagging flow, and sampling etiquette at a local supermarket.
- 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.
Dishes in the same style
- Agonoko UmaniThe roe of egg-bearing flying fish, caught only in early summer, is simmered in stock and soy sauce as an Oki bar snack. Its large grains and dense, sticky texture are prized as a delicacy said to be scarcer even than the fish's flesh.
- Funa MisoCrucian carp is simmered slowly with soybeans for around five hours, then finished in a sauce of red miso and coarse sugar. A freshwater fish dish of the Kiso rivers' lower basin, made with fatty winter carp simmered until the bones soften through.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Shiga
- Amenoio GohanA whole Lake Biwa trout, migrating upstream to spawn, is set atop rice and cooked together; "amenoio" means "rain fish," a name tied to the trout's autumn run after rainfall. The flesh and roe are flaked and mixed through the rice, traditionally made in large pots for gatherings.
- Biwamasu SashimiBiwamasu, a trout found only in Lake Biwa, is filleted and served raw as sashimi. The fish grows richest from early to midsummer and is prized locally as "the jewel of Lake Biwa" — a fish so scarce that it rarely reaches markets beyond the lakeshore.
- Chojifu no Karashi AeChojifu, a square baked wheat gluten unique to Shiga, is paired with cucumber and dressed in mustard-miso vinegar. The gluten also appears in Buddhist vegetarian meals, and its chewy texture with a refreshing tang makes the dish a staple at family gatherings.
- Dongame JiruEggplant scored with a crosshatch pattern is simmered in dashi, then finished with miso and ground sesame. Said to originate in the merchant town of Gokasho, the name compares the muddy look of the sesame in the broth and the eggplant's scored skin to a turtle's shell.
- Ebi MameFreshwater shrimp from Lake Biwa are simmered sweet-savory with soybeans. Inexpensive and long-keeping, the dish is eaten as everyday fare, but is also served at New Year's with a wish for long life — that one might live, like the bent-backed shrimp, into old age.
- Funa-zushiRoe-bearing crucian carp from Lake Biwa, salted and then packed in rice to ferment for half a year or more — the archetype of narezushi. Sharply sour and pungent, some eat the rice too, others scrape it off.