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Imo no Kuki no Itameni
Sweet Potato Stem Stir-simmer — the leaf-stalk of the vine, cooked crisp-tender in dashi
The leaf-stalk of the sweet potato vine is stir-fried, then simmered sweet and salty in dashi — a Kochi staple side dish. Said to have grown from farm households making use of stems that thrive in the hot, humid climate, it's often finished with red chili and sometimes bulked out with fried fish cake.
- Origin: Kochi
- About 620 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
With a crisp, snappy bite, this simmered dish is said to soak up the sweet-savory flavor of stock and soy sauce well. What's used is the petiole, the stem-like part connecting a sweet potato's leaf to its vine, with the tender tips of the trailing shoots preferred. Kochi's hot, humid summers are said to make sweet potato vines grow thick and fast, and farmers are said to have first put that abundance to use as food, a practice that has since spread so far that pre-trimmed stems are now sold in supermarkets.
How it's made
The stems are peeled and parboiled, then lightly stir-fried in a pan. Stock is added and the dish is simmered, seasoned with sugar and soy sauce until done. Sliced red chili is sometimes added at the end for a touch of heat. In Kochi, deep-fried fish paste is called tenpura, and it is said to be a common addition to this dish as well.
Why it took this shape
The dish is said to have been eaten during the lean stretch when summer vegetables were scarce, and during the war it is said to have served as a snack in place of sweets. Farm wives are said to have peeled the stems and sold them at market fairs as a source of side income for the household, and older residents are said to still use the phrase 'let's peel the sweet potato stems' after spending too freely. As people moved from farming villages into towns, the dish is said to have taken root more broadly as home cooking.
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 Kochi
- Chate no AemonoChayote, a squash-family vine native to tropical America and known locally as chate, is tossed raw into a light dressing — an autumn home dish in Kochi. A single vine can bear over a hundred fruit, so it's mostly grown for the household or shared with neighbors, and it's especially popular in the mountains where it grows easily.
- Chunichi SobaA local noodle dish from Akaoka, Kochi's Konan City, pairing Chinese noodles with udon stock. Dried baby sardines and shredded kelp are the standard toppings, said to have grown from a shortcut sparing the effort of both udon and ramen kitchens.
- Ginburo ZushiGinburo, a kidney bean grown only for home use in a district of Otoyo Town, is simmered sweet and folded into vinegared rice with root vegetables. Regarded as a bean of long life and good fortune, it's traditionally made for festivals and celebratory banquets.
- GoishichaA post-fermented tea from Otoyo, Kochi Prefecture, made through two stages of fermentation — an aerobic mold fermentation followed by a lactic acid soak. Named for its square-cut, sun-dried pieces said to resemble go stones, it carries a distinctive sweet-and-sour flavor.
- GuruniDaikon, carrot, taro, and other root vegetables are simmered together in a dashi made from dried baby sardines and soy sauce — a winter side dish. The name is said to come from "guru," Tosa dialect for a group of companions, and the dish was long made in bulk and reheated meal after meal.
- Ha Ninniku no NutaGarlic greens are chopped, ground, and mixed with miso, vinegar, sesame, and sugar — a traditional Kochi condiment said to trace back to a Korean import. It's commonly spooned over raw fish like yellowtail in place of soy sauce, and both its name and the fish it accompanies vary by area.