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Garagara Oroshi
Garagara oroshi — coarsely grated daikon mixed with dried sardine and miso
Daikon coarsely grated with a bamboo "oni-oroshi" grater is mixed with fried tofu, fish cake, dried sardine, red and white miso, and vinegar. Some areas are said to have once paid it in place of rice tax, and it remains a palate-cleansing side at weddings, funerals, and New Year's.
- Origin: Mie
- About 320 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Garagara-oroshi is daikon coarsely grated on a bamboo oni-oroshi grater, then tossed with dried sardines, fried tofu, scallion, and yuzu in a red and white miso and vinegar dressing. The coarse bamboo grater doesn't squeeze out too much liquid, so it can produce a large, light batch of chunky grated daikon all at once. The crisp bite of the daikon paired with the tangy miso dressing has long served as a palate cleanser between other dishes.
How it's made
Headless, gutted dried sardines are soaked in enough vinegar to cover them, while fried tofu, fish cake, and scallion are finely chopped. Daikon, grated on the oni-oroshi grater and lightly salted, is squeezed of excess water, then ground in a mortar with sesame, red and white miso, and sugar. The vinegar-soaked sardines and grated daikon are folded in, and it's finished with finely minced yuzu.
Why it took this shape
The name garagara is said to come from either the sound of coarsely grating daikon or the word for rough, arai. In the Edo period, it's also said that regions offering this dish in place of unpaid rice tax were sometimes excused from it. The oni-oroshi grater was reportedly handmade in each household and passed from mother to daughter as part of a bride's belongings, hinting at how this dish became tied to celebrations, New Year's, and festival gatherings.
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 Mie
- AhodakiOld takuan pickle, once its flavor and aroma have faded, is desalted and simmered again in soy sauce, a pantry staple from the Hokusei area. Its name — playfully self-deprecating, roughly "doing a foolish thing" — nods to eating it well past its prime, a frugal way to waste nothing.
- Arame MakiRehydrated arame, a brown seaweed once offered to Ise Shrine, is wrapped several times around sardine or saury and simmered in soy sauce and sugar. The choice of fish shifts by locality along the Toba coast.
- Bon JiruA miso soup packed with seasonal vegetables such as burdock, eggplant, and pumpkin. Following Zen Buddhist practice of avoiding killing during Obon, it skips bonito or dried-fish stock, relying instead on fried tofu and a generous mix of vegetables for its savor.
- ChagayuRice is cooked in water steeped with a bag of roasted tea leaves. Born in Iga, where farmland was scarce and rice precious, the extra water was a way to stretch the grain further; in summer some households chill the porridge before eating.
- Fuki DawaraRice cooked with soybeans is wrapped in butterbur leaves into a small rice-bale shape, an Iga-area harvest offering. It is set before the rice-paddy deity at planting time to pray for a good crop, and doubles as a portable snack for breaks between farm work.