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Ika to Satoimo no Nimono
Ika to satoimo no nimono — squid and taro simmered together
Rings of squid and peeled taro are simmered slowly until the broth reduces — Toyama is said to land squid year-round, and pairing it with taro harvested in autumn and winter has made this a standard cold-season side dish.
- Origin: Toyama
- About 260 km northwest of Tokyo
What it's made of
A home-style dish of squid and taro simmered in a rich, sweet-salty broth. The squid keeps a springy, satisfying bite while the taro turns soft and almost creamy, the two textures said to play off each other well. Broth soaks deep into the taro's surface, and biting into the squid releases a burst of savor, making it a familiar dish said to warm the body through winter.
How it's made
The squid is cleaned of its innards and sliced into rings. The taro is peeled. Once the broth comes to a boil, both go into the pot. Foam is skimmed off the surface, and the pot is left to simmer gently for about thirty minutes, swirled occasionally, until the broth reduces and the flavor sinks in fully. Keeping the heat low enough that the taro doesn't fall apart is said to be what decides the result.
Why it took this shape
In a bay blessed with several kinds of squid caught throughout the year, this familiar seafood is said to have come together with taro, a traditional vegetable cultivated in the area since the Edo period. Because taro is harvested from autumn into winter, the dish is said to have naturally settled onto tables during that season, becoming a household taste that keeps company with the cold.
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 Toyama
- Bai no NimonoWhelks from the deep waters of Toyama Bay are simmered whole in their shells — said to appear at celebrations thanks to a play on words suggesting doubled good fortune, with smaller whelks simmered and larger ones eaten raw.
- BekkoMelted agar is seasoned with soy sauce and mirin, then set with egg trailed in like threads — its amber color flecked with egg said to resemble a tortoiseshell hair ornament, giving the dish its name; in the west of the prefecture it goes by "yubeshi" instead.
- BurishabuThin slices of yellowtail are swished briefly through kelp broth, said to cook only the surface while leaving the center rare — versions using Himi's branded winter yellowtail are considered a particularly luxurious cold-weather treat.
- Genge no MisoshiruEelpout, a deep-sea fish covered in a gelatinous layer, is cut into chunks and simmered into a miso soup — long treated as an unwanted bycatch of sweet shrimp fishing, its flavor has since been reappraised and spread beyond the fishing villages that first ate it.
- Himi UdonA hand-stretched udon developed in Himi, Toyama, in the mid-Edo period by adapting somen-making techniques from Wajima. It was once presented to the Kaga domain as tribute.
- Hoonko RyoriA catch-all term for the dishes served at houonko, the memorial gathering held on the death anniversary of Jodo Shinshu's founder — the season's better vegetables and wild greens are said to be set aside for it apart from everyday use, with the devout Gokayama area of Nanto known for hearty stews of dried greens and local tofu.