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Nigomi
Omura nigomi — chicken, peanuts, and root vegetables diced small and simmered together
Chicken, peanuts, deep-fried tofu, and root vegetables are all diced to about a centimeter and simmered sweet — a dish from peanut-growing Omura said to date to Edo-era hospitality meals, its fine dicing perhaps a way to waste nothing.
- Origin: Nagasaki Omura
- About 950 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
A simmered dish whose defining trait is boiled peanuts still in their thin skins, cooked alongside chicken thigh, fried tofu, potato, carrot, konjac, lotus root, burdock and dried shiitake, all finely diced to about a centimeter. Seasoned on the sweeter side, it's said to pair well with both rice and a drink, and the small, even pieces are said to give every bite a slightly different texture.
How it's made
Chicken thigh, peanuts, fried tofu, potato, carrot, konjac, lotus root, burdock, dried shiitake and shredded kelp are all diced to about a centimeter. Everything goes into one pot and simmers slowly in a slightly sweet seasoning until done. Dicing everything so fine is said to either match the size of the peanuts or carry over an old habit of using every scrap of food without waste. Being easy to make in a big batch and keep is also said to be why households favor it.
Why it took this shape
In Omura, known for its peanut production, the dish is said to have started as Edo-period hospitality fare and been passed down since. Its name is thought to be a slurred form of the word for 'simmering,' and the practice of finely dicing many ingredients into one pot is believed to be a holdover from its roots as a large-batch dish made to welcome guests. Having been served at celebrations, funerals and gatherings alike is thought to be why it still comes together as a big, make-ahead pot today.
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 Nagasaki
- ArumadoA hard-boiled egg dyed pink is wrapped in fish paste and steamed into a kamaboko log that shows a pink-rimmed cross-section when cut — a Hirado specialty, with kin dishes called "arimado" in Sasebo and "ryugan" in Nagasaki.
- Goto UdonA hand-pulled noodle from Shinkamigoto, Nagasaki. Its technique is thought to trace back to envoys returning from Tang China, and the island's camellia oil is worked into the dough for a smooth, elastic bite.
- HanahajikiCucumber, carrot, deep-fried tofu, and shrimp are cut into strips and fanned out on a plate to be dipped in a hot mustard vinegar-miso — a dish from Isahaya said to be named for how the mustard "flicks the nose," traditionally served at Buddhist memorial services.
- HatoshiShrimp and squid paste sandwiched in bread and deep-fried, a Nagasaki specialty said to have arrived from China in the Meiji era, growing from a shippoku banquet course into a food loved across the city.
- HikadoFish or chicken and vegetables like daikon and carrot are diced fine and simmered, thickened at the end with grated sweet potato — said to originate in a meat stew eaten by Portuguese residents of Nagasaki, its name from the Portuguese word for "minced."
- HikitoshiChicken raised at home is butchered for this Iki hot pot, typically enriched with iki-doufu, a rich local tofu, and firm-boiled somen — said to have begun as a dish served to guests in the inner parlor, its name tracing to "hiki-toshi," leading a guest through.