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Igisu Dofu
Igisu Dofu — a jellied summer dish of seaweed and soybean flour set like agar
Igisu seaweed and raw soybean flour are simmered into stock and chilled firm like agar, a dish from Imabari. Its cool texture is meant to coax back a summer appetite, and households differ over whether to fold in shrimp or leave it plain.
- Origin: Ehime Imabari
- About 640 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
It has a cool, jelly-like texture that slips smoothly down the throat. Igisu, a thin, branching red seaweed that grows on rocks in shallow water around Imabari City, is simmered with raw soybean flour and stock, then poured into a mold and chilled firm — a dish said to go down easily in the heat of summer, when appetites flag. There are two versions: one with shrimp and edamame folded in for color, and a plain one with nothing added, and the mix of extras is said to vary from household to household.
How it's made
The seaweed is rinsed repeatedly to remove debris, then soaked overnight. Carrot, burdock, and shiitake are cut into thin strips and lightly seasoned, and shrimp is boiled in its shell, peeled, and minced. The seaweed is simmered in the shrimp's boiling liquid until it dissolves, then raw soybean flour is added and cooked further. Light soy sauce and the seasoned extras are stirred in before the mixture is poured into a mold, chilled until firm, sliced, and served with a mustard-vinegar miso.
Why it took this shape
Igisu is harvested along the coast around Imabari in July and August, and the dish is said to have taken root there as a way of using that local seaweed. The plain version, eaten with soy sauce or mustard miso, is a simple preparation said to appear often around Obon and memorial services. Many people are said to reach for it the way they would chilled tofu, and it has long been treasured as a summer taste of the Ochi and Imabari area.
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.
- Foods to look for in summerA guide to foods often seen in Japan around summer — eel on the Day of the Ox, hiyashi chuka, somen, shaved ice, edamame with beer, and hamo — with rough pointers for finding them.
- 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.
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 Ehime
- Bote ChaRoasted tea is whisked to a froth with a salted bamboo whisk and poured over black-bean rice with toppings like bamboo shoot — a dish from Matsuyama. Said to have been devised by a domain lord's household during a period of enforced frugality, it's still served at a temple's springtime Buddha festival.
- EbitenSmall shrimp are ground shell and all, worked with white fish and tofu, and fried into a cake — a fish-paste product from eastern Ehime. The salt is kept light to let the tofu's sweetness and the shrimp's aroma come through, with the ground shell left in for a gritty bite.
- SatsumaGrilled fish is flaked and worked into barley miso, thinned with a stock from its own bones, and ladled over hot barley rice — a dish of southern Ehime. Said to have started as a fisherman's trick for making dry barley rice easier to eat, with the fish varying by area and household.
- Tai SomenA whole sea bream is simmered and set on a large platter of boiled somen noodles, the cooking broth doubling as a dipping sauce. The noodles are linked to the Tanabata weaver-star legend and the fish to good fortune, and the dish has long been served to family at weddings and milestone birthdays.
- TaimeshiEastern Ehime cooks a whole sea bream into the rice pot; the south instead lays raw fillets marinated in egg and soy over hot rice. Considered an auspicious fish, it appears at celebrations too, and which style a household follows tends to run by region.
- Ehime Tako MeshiOctopus from the Iyo Sea is cut into pieces and cooked into rice with kelp and root vegetables. It's said to have begun with fishermen simmering their catch right on board, and the finishing touch of mikan peel on top is distinctly Ehime.