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Kanboshi Daikon Ni
Kanboshi daikon ni — freeze-dried daikon simmered in dashi and soy sauce
Daikon, sliced into rounds, boiled, and skewered, is left in sub-zero air to freeze and thaw over and over across about a month until it turns amber — a specialty of Yamanomura in Hida City, over 850 meters up in what's called the 'sky village,' simmered here in dashi and soy sauce as a way to see out winter.
- Origin: Gifu Hida
- About 230 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Amber-colored dried daikon simmered slowly in dashi and soy sauce, so each bite carries the daikon's concentrated natural sweetness alongside a distinctive chewy bite that only deepens through the drying process. It's said to carry a depth of flavor entirely different from a plainly dried radish.
How it's made
Harvested daikon is washed, sliced into rounds, boiled, skewered, and hung to dry under the eaves, freezing and thawing repeatedly over about a month until it turns amber — the dried daikon is then rehydrated in hot or lukewarm water. It's brought to a boil once with dashi, seasoned with soy sauce, and simmered for about twenty minutes.
Why it took this shape
Yamanomura, in Hida City's Kamioka district, sits at 850 to 1,000 meters and is known as a 'village in the sky,' said to have once been cut off by deep snow for about five months of the year. Freezing and thawing daikon repeatedly to dry it is said to be a preservation technique born of the ancestral wisdom needed to survive such a harsh, below-freezing winter.
Before you go
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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 Gifu
- Akadatsu no SubuteThe red-purple leaf stalk of taro, called akadatsu, has its fibers removed and is salt-rubbed before being dressed in a sweetened vinegar — a dish of Yamagata City on land whose lime-poor, thin soil suited taro cultivation, once said to be fed to new mothers to aid recovery.
- Ayu NarezushiAyu heading downriver to spawn in autumn, often carrying roe, are salted and stuffed with freshly cooked rice, then packed in a barrel to ferment for about two months — a narezushi of Gifu City said to have been made from fish caught at the Nagara River's cormorant fishery and once presented to the shogunate.
- Ayu ZosuiAyu, grilled plain until fragrant, is flaked and briefly simmered with dashi and rice into a light porridge — a Gifu river-fish dish said to have begun as a way to use ayu too damaged from fishing to sell whole, often served as the closing course at restaurants specializing in ayu.
- FunamisoCrucian carp, first grilled plain, simmers for hours with rehydrated soybeans, then finishes in soybean miso and coarse sugar — a river-fish dish of the Seino region, where the miso's strong umami is said to soften the fish's characteristic edge, simmered until the flesh falls apart as a winter keeping food.
- Ayu no ShioyakiAyu are salted all over, given a decorative touch of salt on fin and tail, then grilled over charcoal on both sides — a river-fish dish of Gifu, said to draw on fish caught fresh at the 1,300-year-old Nagara River cormorant fishery or at the traditional yana weirs that channel fish into a catch.
- Gohei MochiCrushed rice is skewered and grilled, then glazed with a walnut- or peanut-flecked sauce — a dish of the Tono and Hida areas where soy-based sauce dominates north of the old Nakasendo road and miso-based sauce south of it, traditionally served to celebrate the new rice harvest or to honor a guest.