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Ebi Mame
Ebi mame — Lake Biwa river shrimp simmered sweet-savory with soybeans
Freshwater 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.
- Origin: Shiga
- About 360 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Ebimame simmers freshwater shrimp from Lake Biwa together with soybeans in a sweet-salty glaze. Rich in calcium and protein, made from inexpensive ingredients, and able to keep well, it's said to have been widely eaten as everyday fare. It's also said to have been made for celebrations like New Year's, carrying a wish for a long life, likened to living carefully enough that one's back curves like a shrimp's in old age.
How it's made
Soybeans soaked overnight in water are boiled in a pot until soft. Soy sauce, vinegar, and other seasonings are brought to a boil in a pot, then washed freshwater shrimp are added and simmered until they change color. The boiled soybeans are stirred in and simmered further, and mirin is worked through everything at the end. Vinegar is said to soften the shrimp shells and help the dish keep longer.
Why it took this shape
Soybeans and azuki have long been grown along paddy embankments in Shiga, and dishes made with soybeans are said to have long been prepared for celebrations, memorial services, and festival gatherings. Freshwater shrimp live in the shallows from spring through summer, and Okishima Island is said to be home to a traditional fishing method called ebi-tatsube. Combining a familiar catch from the lake with the harvest of the paddy is thought to be what grounds this dish in everyday life.
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
- Aka Konnyaku NiKonjac 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.
- 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.
- 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.