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Iruka no Misoni
Iruka no misoni — dolphin meat simmered with burdock root in miso
Dolphin meat landed by the traditional drive fishery of the Izu coast is stir-fried with burdock root, then simmered in sake, soy sauce, sugar, and miso. It's said to carry the memory of a hunt traced back to the Jomon period, once an everyday home dish in Izu.
- Origin: Shizuoka Ito
- About 100 km southwest of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Iruka no misoni is an Izu dish made by stir-frying dolphin meat with burdock root, then seasoning it with sake, soy sauce, sugar, and miso. The bay off the Izu Peninsula lies along a dolphin migration route, and the peninsula's jagged coastline is said to have suited the drive-hunting method used there. Back when dolphin meat was sold at local fish shops, some households also added carrot or konnyaku.
How it's made
The dolphin meat is cut into bite-sized pieces, and the fatty part is stir-fried first, followed by the burdock root. Sake, soy sauce, sugar, and miso are then added to season it. Some households also add carrot or konnyaku besides the burdock. A dried version called 'tare,' thick slices soaked in a soy-sauce marinade and sun-dried, was also eaten as a drinking snack.
Why it took this shape
Dolphin bones have reportedly been found at Jomon-era archaeological sites, suggesting dolphin hunting in Izu goes back a long way. In the years when meat was easy to buy at local fish shops, the miso stew is said to have been a common winter dish in ordinary households. Rising concern for dolphin welfare both in Japan and abroad, along with catch restrictions, halted the hunt after 2004, though it reportedly resumed in 2019 for live capture destined for aquariums only.
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 Shizuoka
- Abekawa MochiFresh-pounded rice cake is dusted in soybean flour mixed with sugar. Named for the Abe River, it's said to have been famous among Tokaido travelers as a teahouse specialty and to appear in the travel novel Tokaidochu Hizakurige.
- BokumeshiSteamed eel and shaved burdock are simmered together and folded into freshly cooked rice. Its name is said to trace to oversized eels unfit for sale, used in staff meals at eel farms along the Oi River — a mixed rice dish of the region.
- Fuji KinkaBred by Shizuoka Prefecture by crossing its own Duroc line, Fujirock, with Jinhua, a rare breed from China's Zhejiang province — found only in Shizuoka. Said to combine Jinhua's tenderness with Fujirock's marbling.
- Fujieda Asa RamenA town that eats ramen at breakfast — often a hot bowl followed by a cold one.
- Fujinomiya YakisobaIt grew up as a postwar snack at Fujinomiya's candy shops and okonomiyaki stalls. Its identity rests on three local staples: chewy steamed noodles, pork-lard cracklings called nikukasu, and a sardine-powder topping called dashiko.
- GawaRaw bonito is minced and mixed into a chilled miso broth with cucumber, pickled plum, and shiso. Its name is said to come from the "gawa-gawa" sound of stirring miso into ice water aboard a fishing boat — originally a summer meal made at sea.