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Koi no Kanroni
Koi no kanroni — carp simmered a long while in sugar, syrup, and soy sauce
Carp cut into chunks is simmered a long while in sugar, starch syrup, soy sauce, and sake, then left overnight to soak up the sauce — a dish of Koriyama. It uses carp farmed with little of the fish's usual muddiness in ponds fed by Lake Inawashiro, and is said to have started as festival-day food.
- Origin: Fukushima Koriyama
- About 200 km north of Tokyo
What it's made of
Carp raised in the clear waters fed by Lake Inawashiro are cut into chunks and simmered slowly in a sweet-salty mix of sugar, starch syrup, soy sauce, and sake in this Aizu dish. Carp from clean water are said to carry little of the fish's usual gaminess, and the sweet broth soaks in fully for a deeply savory result. It's said to have originally been served on special occasions.
How it's made
Prepped carp, cut into chunks, goes into a pot of water, soy sauce, sake, sugar, and starch syrup brought to a boil, then simmers for hours as scum is skimmed off, the basic method. The heat is turned off partway through to let the broth soak in as it cools, and resting it overnight before reheating the next day is said to deepen the flavor further.
Why it took this shape
In Koriyama, carp farming is said to have spread in ponds fed by water drawn from Lake Inawashiro starting in the Meiji era, helped along by easy access to silkworm pupae as feed from the area's thriving silk industry. Simmering the plentiful carp in a sweet broth of sugar and starch syrup is thought to have developed as a way to mask any gaminess while extending how long it would keep.
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.
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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 Fukushima
- Aizu RamenFlat, thick hand-made noodles in a clear soy broth. Said to trace back to a Aizuwakamatsu diner owner bringing home a taste learned in Yokohama — a second soy ramen lineage that grew up apart from Kitakata's, in the same Aizu region.
- Aizu Curry YakisobaA dish from Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima: sauce yakisoba topped with curry roux. It's said to trace to a diner called Tommy Food, which began ladling curry over its yakisoba, catching on especially among young diners for its low price and filling size.
- Aizu GyuSteers and heifers of Japanese Black raised in the Aizu basin, fed mainly local rice straw — the basin's sharp seasonal swings are said to suit fattening, making it Fukushima's leading brand.
- Aizu JidoriA lineage said to have been brought to Aizu by Heike clan refugees, saved from near-extinction and re-established through crossbreeding by Fukushima prefecture; reportedly fattened for 90 to 170 days.
- Aizu Sōsu KatsudonAizu's sauce katsudon, doused in a thick sweet-savory sauce. Its origin has several competing accounts, none settled, but all point to it being refined through everyday improvisation on Taisho-era Western food.
- Aizu Yamajio RamenSalt ramen seasoned with mountain salt drawn from hot-spring water — rounder than sea salt.