Home-style
Nikudofu
Nikudofu — beef and tofu simmered sukiyaki-style with Kujo green onion
Beef and firm tofu simmer in a sweet soy broth, finished with Kujo green onion, a Kyoto heirloom variety said to trace to plantings made when Fushimi Inari Shrine was founded — a sukiyaki-style dish. Kyoto's soft water is said to make tofu that pairs especially well with it.
- Origin: Kyoto City, Kyoto
- About 370 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
This winter staple from Kyoto City simmers beef, firm tofu, and Kujo green onion sukiyaki-style. Kyoto's tofu, made with soft water, is said to have little of the mineral edge that can give tofu a rough character, and Kujo green onion is said to sweeten once the frost sets in. The combination of tofu soaked in warishita sauce and beef is said to warm the body through on cold days. The onion is a leaf variety eaten for its green tops, its tender interior notably slick, with a strong sweetness and aroma, it's said.
How it's made
Beef and tofu are set in a pot and seasoned sukiyaki-style, and once well simmered, chopped Kujo green onion is added and simmered a little further. A quick pass through the heat is said to be what brings out the onion's sweetness best, and the seasoning of the warishita sauce is said to vary by household or restaurant, each carrying its own character. Easy enough to make at home, it's said to appear often on ordinary family tables, and it's served at restaurants too as a signature Kyoto dish.
Why it took this shape
Kujo green onion is said to trace back to 771, when it was reportedly planted by Hata no Irogu at the founding of Fushimi Inari Shrine, its seed said to have been handed down by farmers ever since, earning it the nickname 'king of leaf onions.' Kyoto's beef has a long history too, and by the early Meiji era a sukiyaki restaurant is said to have opened in Kyoto City. Its good match with soft-water tofu is thought to be part of why the combination of beef, tofu, and green onion took hold as a set dish.
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 Kyoto
- Chirimen SanshoChirimen-jako simmered sweet-salty with fresh sansho peppercorns in sake, soy sauce, and mirin — a Kyoto side dish said to have begun as a cook's gift in the mid-Showa era. The peppercorns leave a sharp, fragrant aftertaste.
- Ebiimo to Bodara no TaitanEbi-imo, a striped Kyoto heirloom taro named for its shrimp-like ridges, simmers together with bodara, cod dried in Hokkaido. Gelatin from the dried cod is said to keep the taro from falling apart, while the taro's bitterness softens the cod — a textbook 'deaimon' pairing.
- Fushimi no SakeSake from Fushimi in Kyoto, a district fed by groundwater from the Momoyama plateau. Its water is said to be softer than Nada's, giving a round mouthfeel and gentle, full sweetness that overlaps with the profile recognized under the GI Kyoto geographical indication.
- GanmodokiTofu mixed with vegetables, rolled into balls, and fried. Known in Kyoto as hirousu or hiryōzu, thought to have taken this form through the vegetarian temple-cooking idea of a filling dish made without meat.
- Hamo no YakimonoPike conger, riddled with fine bones, is scored with the skilled honekiri cut and then grilled — teriyaki-glazed or salted — in Kyoto cuisine. Said to have taken root in landlocked Kyoto because the hardy fish could be carried in alive, it is also a festival food for Gion Matsuri, nicknamed the 'hamo festival.'
- Kamonasu DengakuKamonasu, a round Kyoto heirloom eggplant over 10cm across sometimes called the 'queen of eggplants,' is sliced and pan-fried in plenty of oil, then topped with a sweet miso reduced with sake and mirin. It is said to have long been grown on the alluvial fan of Kamigamo.