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Kuwai no Amani
Kuwai no amani — arrowhead tubers simmered sweet for New Year's
Blue arrowhead tubers—their deep indigo skin earning them the nickname "sapphire of the paddies"—are simmered sweet in dashi, sugar, and gardenia fruit for color. Because a sprout pushes visibly from the tuber, it is treated as a wish for new beginnings and served in New Year's osechi trays.
- Origin: Hiroshima Fukuyama
- About 600 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Arrowhead corms simmered sweet in broth, sugar, and mirin. Kuwai has a deep blue-indigo skin and a starchy, slightly bitter-sweet bite once cooked. Because a healthy shoot sprouts from the corm, it's treated as a symbol of new growth and good fortune.
How it's made
The kuwai is boiled, then peeled while leaving the sprout intact. It's simmered in a broth colored with gardenia fruit and seasoned with sugar and mirin, and letting it sit overnight is said to help the flavor sink in. It's also sometimes deep-fried plain, tossed into a salad, or made into chips.
Why it took this shape
Fukuyama's mild, sunny Seto climate is said to have suited the corm's growth from early on, and cultivation is said to trace back to around 1902, when wild kuwai from a marsh were moved to fertile moats near the old castle. Valued as a "sprouting" good-luck charm for New Year's cooking, it became a fixture of osechi, with shipments still concentrated in November and December.
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.
- Osechi and zoni for the New YearA guide to the meaning behind osechi's tiered boxes, the regional differences in zoni (square vs. round mochi, clear vs. miso broth), and the nanakusa-gayu custom.
- Setsubun: ehomaki and lucky beansA guide to ehomaki, the uncut sushi roll said to be eaten facing a lucky direction on Setsubun, and to mamemaki, the bean-throwing custom with roasted lucky beans.
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 Hiroshima
- Anago MeshiConger eel, grilled kabayaki-style, is sliced and layered over rice cooked in dashi—a dish from Miyajima. It uses "Seto anago," prized for the fat that fast currents help build into the fish, and is said to have begun in 1901 as a bento sold at Miyajimaguchi station.
- AzumaSardine-like mamakari, cured in vinegar, is pressed onto seasoned okara instead of vinegared rice in this coastal sushi. It is said to have begun as a way to stretch scarce rice by substituting the cheap, plentiful soy pulp, and was served at festivals and New Year's gatherings.
- Bishu NabeChicken, gizzard, and pork are simmered with nothing more than salt, pepper, and sake in this hot pot from Saijo, one of Japan's noted brewing towns. It is said to have begun as a simple meal cooked by sake brewers between batches, seasoned lightly so as not to dull their palate for tasting.
- EbamakiRice is tossed with Hiroshima-na pickle, bonito flakes, and sesame, then rolled in toasted nori—a roll from Hiroshima's Eba district, long known for seaweed cultivation. The ends are sometimes tucked shut so it can be eaten one-handed while rowing, a food born for nori fishermen working on the water.
- Fuchu-yakiA Fuchu, Hiroshima take on okonomiyaki that swaps sliced pork belly for ground beef or pork worked right into the batter, so the meat's flavor is said to come through evenly in every bite.
- GansuFish paste coated in panko and fried, a Kure, Hiroshima specialty. Said to have been devised in the postwar 1940s as a way to use leftover fish paste from kamaboko production, an unusual pairing of fried fish cake and cutlet-style crumb.