Home-style
Bodara-ni
Bodara-ni — bone-dry salt cod, soaked a week and simmered soft over days
Bodara, cod dried bone-hard, is soaked in water for about a week and simmered over several days in soy sauce and sugar until even the bones soften — a New Year dish of Aizuwakamatsu. In an inland city where fresh seafood rarely arrived, it is said to have been valued as a source of protein.
- Origin: Fukushima Aizuwakamatsu
- About 200 km north of Tokyo
What it's made of
Dried stockfish, rehydrated over several days, is simmered slowly in soy sauce and sugar until sweet and savory in this dish from Aizuwakamatsu. Simmering until even the bones soften lets the fish soak up a deep, rich flavor, it's said. It's said to be a labor-intensive dish reserved for special occasions.
How it's made
The rock-hard dried fish is soaked in water for several days, alternately simmered and rehydrated repeatedly, taking about a week in total, the basic method. Once cut to a manageable size, it's simmered in soy sauce, sugar, water, and sake for about five hours at a time, repeated several times, it's said. Taking this much time is said to be what softens the fish down to the bone.
Why it took this shape
In inland Aizuwakamatsu, fresh seafood is said to have been hard to come by, and dried, long-keeping seafood like herring and stockfish is said to have been treasured as a protein source. The laborious process of carefully rehydrating and slow-simmering the rock-hard dried fish over many days is thought to be what turned it into a dish fit for New Year's and celebrations.
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 Fukushima
- Aizu RamenFlat, thick hand-made noodles in a clear soy broth. Said to trace back to a Aizuwakamatsu diner owner bringing home a taste learned in Yokohama — a second soy ramen lineage that grew up apart from Kitakata's, in the same Aizu region.
- Aizu Curry YakisobaA dish from Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima: sauce yakisoba topped with curry roux. It's said to trace to a diner called Tommy Food, which began ladling curry over its yakisoba, catching on especially among young diners for its low price and filling size.
- Aizu GyuSteers and heifers of Japanese Black raised in the Aizu basin, fed mainly local rice straw — the basin's sharp seasonal swings are said to suit fattening, making it Fukushima's leading brand.
- Aizu JidoriA lineage said to have been brought to Aizu by Heike clan refugees, saved from near-extinction and re-established through crossbreeding by Fukushima prefecture; reportedly fattened for 90 to 170 days.
- Aizu Sōsu KatsudonAizu's sauce katsudon, doused in a thick sweet-savory sauce. Its origin has several competing accounts, none settled, but all point to it being refined through everyday improvisation on Taisho-era Western food.
- Aizu Yamajio RamenSalt ramen seasoned with mountain salt drawn from hot-spring water — rounder than sea salt.