Home-style
Nasu no Orandani
Nasu no orandani — eggplant simmered sweet and savory
Whole eggplant, fried or pan-seared, is simmered sweet and savory in soy sauce and sugar — said to have taken hold among farming households looking to use up a heavy harvest, its name reputedly tracing to a cooking method that arrived via Nagasaki. Often served chilled.
- Origin: Ishikawa Kanazawa
- About 300 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Eggplant fried or sautéed, then simmered whole in a sweet-salty broth. The skin stays glossy and taut while the flesh turns soft and almost melting, and biting into it is said to release a burst of sweet-salty broth. The eggplant's own plain flavor comes through, and the contrast between the skin's firm texture and the flesh's melting softness is said to make for an enjoyable dish, good served cold as well.
How it's made
The stem end is trimmed and the eggplant scored, then parboiled in boiling water to draw out bitterness. That liquid is discarded, and fresh dashi is brought to a boil with soy sauce and sugar to simmer the eggplant in. It is eaten once the flavor has fully soaked through, sometimes topped with grated ginger or chili. A version salted first and simmered whole is also passed down.
Why it took this shape
The dish is said to have been eaten daily on farms as a way to use up a large eggplant harvest. Its name is said to trace to a Western cooking method that arrived by way of Nagasaki, and using a local eggplant variety that holds its shape well is said to let its natural flavor come through fully. Its light, easy character during the late-summer stretch when appetite tends to fade is also said to be part of why it took root.
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 Ishikawa
- AimazeRoot vegetables from Noto's reddish soil are cut into thin strips and simmered with fried tofu — traditionally made ahead for New Year and other special days, with the choice of vegetables shifting from village to village.
- Beka NabeSardines pickled in rice bran are simmered with napa cabbage, mushrooms, and sake lees in this Noto winter hot pot, said to descend from a preservation method from before refrigeration — its name reputedly a nod to how commonly the cheap fish was eaten.
- Daikon-zushiA fermented sushi from the Kaga region layering daikon radish with dried herring in rice koji. Said to have taken root once herring carried by the Kitamae trading ships reached ordinary tables, it now sits alongside kaburazushi as a New Year staple.
- EbisuMelted agar is mixed with beaten egg, sugar, and soy sauce, then set — said to trace back to an egg-and-agar dish recorded in an Edo-period cookbook, nicknamed "berobero" for its glossy, slippery look, and served on festive occasions.
- Goshiki NamagashiFive kinds of mochi and buns, each representing sun, moon, mountain, sea, and village, are arranged in a lidded box — a Kanazawa wedding confection said to trace back to a gift prepared for a Kaga domain bride, still handed out as a return gift at celebrations.
- UFO RamenA bowl from Hakui, Ishikawa, a town known for its UFO-sighting lore, served under the local Hakui UFO Gourmet banner. Sushi shops and Western-style diners alike top a soy-based broth with saucer-shaped garnishes, each putting its own spin on the town's story.