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Norabouna no Ohitashi
Norabouna no ohitashi — blanched norabou greens dressed simply
A dish of norabouna, a traditional vegetable grown in the Suge district of Kawasaki City, blanched and served as a simple dressed side. Said to have helped people survive an Edo-period famine, it is enjoyed simply for its faint sweetness and tender texture.
- Origin: Kanagawa Kawasaki
What it's made of
A traditional leafy green called norabou-na, grown here for generations, is boiled and dressed with soy sauce or a soy-based dashi sauce. Though it belongs to the brassica family, it carries little of the bitterness typical of that group, and its gentle sweetness and tender texture come through most in the flower stalks, the part most commonly eaten. The simple preparation lets the vegetable's own aroma and crunch take center stage in this dish that announces spring.
How it's made
Washed norabou-na is briefly boiled in salted water. As soon as it's cooked, it goes straight into cold water to set the color, then is squeezed well to drain. It's cut into easy-to-eat lengths, plated, and finished with a light drizzle of soy sauce or dashi-soy sauce. Overcooking dulls its distinctive texture and aroma, so a quick, brief boil is the key to getting it right.
Why it took this shape
This vegetable was originally grown for its oil, and farmers each saved their own seed year after year to keep growing it. Hardy by nature, it's said to have helped many people survive past famines. Pinching the flower stalk deep lets new side shoots emerge again and again, so a growing method that stretches the harvest over a long period took hold, and the plant stayed a familiar backyard crop passed down through generations.
Before you go
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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 Kanagawa
- DoriaButter rice topped with shrimp in cream, covered in white sauce and cheese and baked. Said to have been improvised at a Yokohama hotel for a guest who wasn't feeling well.
- Ebi MayoBattered, fried shrimp are tossed in a sweet mayonnaise-based sauce — said to have begun when a Cantonese chef, unsatisfied with a mayonnaise-dressed shrimp dish he'd eaten in the United States, remade it his own way.
- Gyu NabeA Yokohama-born hot pot of beef, tofu and chrysanthemum greens simmered from the start in a soy or miso-based sauce. Born of the port city's encounter with Western meat-eating culture, it is said to trace to a tavern owner who opened one of the first beef-pot restaurants.
- Harihari-zukeDaikon cut thicker than ordinary kiriboshi strips, dried, then pickled in a soy-based sauce — a Miura Peninsula specialty. Its name is said to echo the crisp "hari-hari" bite, developed in Miura, a daikon-growing region since the Edo period.
- Herahera DangoA confection from Sajima in Yokosuka City, flattened dumplings of wheat or glutinous rice flour coated in sweet bean paste. Offered at the shrine during a summer boat festival to pray for a good catch and good health, it is still shared among family.
- Hiratsuka-kei TanmenA clear, salt-based broth carries a faint edge of acidity, topped with wakame seaweed and chopped onion — a thinner, less thickened bowl than the typical Kanagawa tanmen, said to have taken root among Chinese-style diners in Hiratsuka.