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Funamiso
Funamiso — crucian carp slow-simmered with soybeans in red miso
Crucian carp, first grilled plain, simmers for hours with rehydrated soybeans, then finishes in soybean miso and coarse sugar — a river-fish dish of the Seino region, where the miso's strong umami is said to soften the fish's characteristic edge, simmered until the flesh falls apart as a winter keeping food.
- Origin: Gifu
- About 290 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Plainly grilled crucian carp simmered slowly with soybeans, soybean miso, and coarse sugar, so by the time the bones have gone soft the flesh falls apart tender, and the miso's deep richness and the soybeans' sweetness wrap around the river fish's particular flavor. The soybean miso's bold aroma is said to soften whatever gaminess the fish carries.
How it's made
Crucian carp, gutted and scaled, are grilled plain, then simmered a long while with soaked soybeans before coarse sugar, soybean miso, and sake are added to simmer further. It's said to be ready once the flesh falls apart and the bones have gone soft. Prepared as a winter preserve, it's said to be eaten little by little through the cold months.
Why it took this shape
The Seino region, fed by the Kiso Three Rivers, is said to have been rich in river fish, and a food culture of processing and preserving crucian carp, catfish, and other small fish is said to have grown up there. Soybean miso, distinctive to the Tokai region, is rich in protein and umami and is said to soften a fish's gaminess when heated — a good enough match with crucian carp that it's said to have become the standard pairing.
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
- Kobuna no KanroniSmall crucian carp raised alongside rice in paddy fields go into the pot live, simmered slowly in soy sauce and sugar until the bones soften — an autumn taste of the Saku region, eaten alongside freshly cooked new rice.
- 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.
Also from Gifu
- Akadatsu no SubuteThe red-purple leaf stalk of taro, called akadatsu, has its fibers removed and is salt-rubbed before being dressed in a sweetened vinegar — a dish of Yamagata City on land whose lime-poor, thin soil suited taro cultivation, once said to be fed to new mothers to aid recovery.
- Ayu NarezushiAyu heading downriver to spawn in autumn, often carrying roe, are salted and stuffed with freshly cooked rice, then packed in a barrel to ferment for about two months — a narezushi of Gifu City said to have been made from fish caught at the Nagara River's cormorant fishery and once presented to the shogunate.
- Ayu ZosuiAyu, grilled plain until fragrant, is flaked and briefly simmered with dashi and rice into a light porridge — a Gifu river-fish dish said to have begun as a way to use ayu too damaged from fishing to sell whole, often served as the closing course at restaurants specializing in ayu.
- Ayu no ShioyakiAyu are salted all over, given a decorative touch of salt on fin and tail, then grilled over charcoal on both sides — a river-fish dish of Gifu, said to draw on fish caught fresh at the 1,300-year-old Nagara River cormorant fishery or at the traditional yana weirs that channel fish into a catch.
- Gohei MochiCrushed rice is skewered and grilled, then glazed with a walnut- or peanut-flecked sauce — a dish of the Tono and Hida areas where soy-based sauce dominates north of the old Nakasendo road and miso-based sauce south of it, traditionally served to celebrate the new rice harvest or to honor a guest.
- ImomochiTaro and rice are cooked together, mashed smooth, shaped and skewered, then grilled over charcoal and dipped in ginger soy sauce — a dish of the Nakatsugawa area said to have begun with combining leftover broken rice from the harvest with sticky taro, or as a way to stretch rice in lean years.