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Iidako no Nitsuke
Iidako no nitsuke — simmered egg-bearing baby octopus
Small octopus caught off Kurashiki's Shimotsui, their bodies packed with rice-grain-sized eggs, are simmered in a soy broth through winter — locals say the ink, too, holds the flavor, though many still remove the ink sac before cooking.
- Origin: Okayama Kurashiki
- About 560 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Baby octopus carrying rice-grain-like eggs are simmered sweet and salty in soy sauce, mirin, and sugar. Despite their small size, they hold a surprising amount of ink, and eating it along with the flesh is said to add a distinctive richness. The bite has a satisfying chewiness, with the eggs adding their own soft, dense texture.
How it's made
The octopus is rubbed with salt to remove its slime, then rinsed. It's first simmered plain in water over low heat; meanwhile, soy sauce, mirin, sugar, and water are brought to a boil in a separate pot, and the pre-simmered octopus is added. Once it returns to a boil, the heat is lowered and the pot is covered with a drop-lid to keep the octopus from toughening.
Why it took this shape
This octopus is commonly caught around Shimotsui in Kurashiki's Kojima area, and its name — meaning "rice-dumpling octopus" — is said to come from the rice-grain-like eggs it carries in winter. The simmered dish is timed to that egg-bearing season, and whether the ink sac is left in or carefully removed is said to come down to household habit and taste.
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
Also from Okayama
- Ami to Daikon no NitsukeTiny Setouchi shrimp called ami, richest in early autumn, are simmered with daikon in soy sauce and sugar — a pairing said to have grown from the two coming into season together, with a salted version kept for winter when rough seas kept boats ashore.
- Bachi JiruThe offcut ends of hand-stretched somen, called bachi for their resemblance to a shamisen pick, are simmered with daikon, carrot, and fried tofu in Asakuchi's Kamogata — said to hold a firmer bite than the somen strands themselves.
- Buri ZoniIn southern Okayama, New Year's zoni is built around yellowtail, a fish that changes name as it grows and so is read as auspicious, simmered with spinach, daikon, and other root vegetables — a dish passed down through the generations for the New Year's table.
- Chiya GyuJapanese Black raised in Niimi, Okayama, tracing to one of the oldest documented "tsuru-ushi" pedigree lines from the Edo period — said to benefit from the clear Takahashi river and fertile soil.
- Demi KatsudonA freshly fried pork cutlet is doused in hot demi-glace sauce over rice, a bowl said to have been devised by the founder of an old Okayama City restaurant after being won over by Western-style cooking at a Tokyo hotel — toppings vary shop to shop.
- FunameshiCrucian carp caught in the waterways of the reclaimed Kojima Bay farmland, at their least fishy in the cold season, are minced by hand and simmered with root vegetables, the rich broth then ladled over hot rice — also known as tonto-ko-jiru for the sound of the knife against the board.