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Amago no Kanroni
Amago no kanroni — river trout simmered slowly in roasted tea and sweet soy
River trout, called the queen of the mountain stream, first grilled plain and then simmered in roasted tea before being finished sweet and savory in soy sauce and mirin — a dish of the Yoshino and Uda districts. The fish is said to have little of a river-fish's usual edge, and the dish is remembered as a mother's home cooking.
- Origin: Nara
- About 370 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
A stream fish called amago, simmered sweet and savory with hojicha tea. Prized for its beautiful spotted markings, it is sometimes called the "queen of the mountain stream," and its mild, refined flavor pairs well with the slowly reduced sweet-savoury glaze.
How it's made
The scales and innards are removed from the amago, which is then washed well and lightly grilled without seasoning. The grilled fish is placed in a pot with hojicha and simmered, then seasonings are added and it is simmered further until the flavor soaks in.
Why it took this shape
Amago, a member of the salmon family related to the satsukimasu trout, is said to be called the "queen of the mountain stream" for the fine red dots within its oval markings. Enjoyed in many forms including tempura, salt-grilled, or pan-fried, the sweet-simmered version in particular is said to be a homemade dish long made in local households. Fresh amago rarely appears in stores, but the prepared, preserved version is available throughout the year.
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.
- Food for Obon and the harvest moon (tsukimi)A guide to the meat-free shojin ryori and somen served at Obon, and the tsukimi dango offered on the night of the harvest moon.
- At teishoku diners, shokudo, and machi-chukaA guide to the teishoku set-meal format, free rice refills, table placement, and paying at a shokudo-style diner.
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
Contrast
- Itadori no NimonoA dish from Nara's Yoshino mountains that peels and soaks Japanese knotweed, a sharply astringent and sour wild green, before stir-frying it. Its name, itadori, is said to come from a belief that rubbing it on a wound eases the pain, and the plant can also be salted for long storage.
- Namabushi to Negi no NimonoHalf-smoked bonito, an intermediate stage in making dried bonito flakes, simmered in a strong soy dashi with local scallions such as Kawanishi's Yuzaki negi. Landlocked Nara is said to have long valued the fish for how well it keeps, and its pairing with scallion is a common combination.
Also from Nara
- Asuka NabeA hot pot from Asuka Village of chicken and seasonal vegetables simmered in milk and dashi. It is said to trace to a dairy product brought from Tang China in the Asuka period and later reworked by monks who simmered their chickens in milk, taking its present form around the early Showa era.
- Ayu ZushiA whole sweetfish pressed onto vinegared rice, made along the Yoshino River. Sweetfish, raised on river-stone algae, are called kogyo, 'fragrant fish,' and the sushi is said to have become known in part because a sushi shop featured in a kabuki play actually existed in Nara.
- DengaraA sweet from Higashiyoshino and Kawakami villages: bean-paste mochi steamed inside magnolia leaves. It is made for Boys' Day, wishing a son success and safe growth, and because each leaf on a single branch is wrapped around its own mochi, the finished cluster hangs like a bunch of fruit.
- Ei no NikogoriRed stingray simmered sweet and savory in soy sauce and sugar, a Nara dish. Its own gelatin dissolves into the cooking liquid and sets into a jelly once cooled, giving the dish its name, nikogori. It is said to have been eaten together with noppei at Kasuga Shrine's Wakamiya festival.
- Hangesho MochiA Nara Basin mochi pounded from cracked wheat and glutinous rice around hangesho, the eleventh day after the summer solstice. It is made at the point when the wheat harvest and rice planting both wind down, and is also called sanaburi mochi for the rite that sends off the rice-field deity.
- ImobotaA Nara-style sweet rice cake made by cooking taro into non-glutinous rice, mashing it, and wrapping it around sweet red bean paste. When glutinous rice was precious, taro's own stickiness is said to have stood in for it, and in many areas it is offered at the household altar on the Day of the Boar in November, once the harvest is in.