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Aimaze
Aimaze — julienned vegetables dressed separately then tossed together
Dried shiitake, lotus root, burdock, and freeze-dried konjac are each simmered and seasoned separately, then tossed together in a sweetened vinegar dressing. It is said to have begun as a way to use up leftover simmered dishes from funeral gatherings, and the name changes by locality.
- Origin: Mie Ise
- About 310 km southwest of Tokyo
What it's made of
Aimaze brings together julienned daikon and carrot namasu, lotus root, burdock, dried shiitake, and frozen konnyaku, each simmered and seasoned separately before being tossed together in a sweetened vinegar dressing. Freezing turns ordinary konnyaku spongy, giving it a meatier bite than the springy fresh version. The layered flavors of each ingredient mingle on the tongue alongside a gentle sourness.
How it's made
Daikon, carrot, lotus root, burdock, shiitake, and frozen konnyaku are each cut into thin strips and simmered separately with soy sauce and sugar, a step careful cooks are said to take seriously. Once every ingredient is seasoned, they're combined and tossed thoroughly in sweetened vinegar, then left to marinate so the flavors settle before serving.
Why it took this shape
Aimaze is said to have started as a way to use up leftovers from kumimono, a dish prepared for funeral gatherings, chopped fine so nothing went to waste. In some areas it's reportedly made from what's left of New Year's osechi dishes instead. As home funerals became less common, the dish was made less often, but people who miss its taste still make it deliberately for New Year's and memorial gatherings where people come together.
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 Mie
- AhodakiOld takuan pickle, once its flavor and aroma have faded, is desalted and simmered again in soy sauce, a pantry staple from the Hokusei area. Its name — playfully self-deprecating, roughly "doing a foolish thing" — nods to eating it well past its prime, a frugal way to waste nothing.
- Arame MakiRehydrated arame, a brown seaweed once offered to Ise Shrine, is wrapped several times around sardine or saury and simmered in soy sauce and sugar. The choice of fish shifts by locality along the Toba coast.
- Bon JiruA miso soup packed with seasonal vegetables such as burdock, eggplant, and pumpkin. Following Zen Buddhist practice of avoiding killing during Obon, it skips bonito or dried-fish stock, relying instead on fried tofu and a generous mix of vegetables for its savor.
- ChagayuRice is cooked in water steeped with a bag of roasted tea leaves. Born in Iga, where farmland was scarce and rice precious, the extra water was a way to stretch the grain further; in summer some households chill the porridge before eating.
- ChatsuJulienned daikon, carrot, lotus root, kelp, and fried tofu are simmered in vinegar and sugar, a dish from Asahi town. Its name is said to come from "chatsu," the red-lacquered vessel once used to serve vegetarian temple food, and soy sauce is deliberately left out to keep the dish pale.
- Fuki DawaraRice cooked with soybeans is wrapped in butterbur leaves into a small rice-bale shape, an Iga-area harvest offering. It is set before the rice-paddy deity at planting time to pray for a good crop, and doubles as a portable snack for breaks between farm work.