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Sado no Nishime
Sado no nishime — slow-simmered tofu, konjac and kelp in flying-fish dashi
A Sado City dish of grilled tofu, konjac and kelp slow-simmered in dashi made from grilled flying fish. Its name comes from being simmered until the broth is gone, and it is said to be indispensable at festivals and family occasions.
- Origin: Niigata Sado
- About 290 km northwest of Tokyo
What it's made of
A broth made from grilled walleye pollock and other ingredients is used to simmer konjac, grilled tofu, kelp and vegetables slowly for a long time, an oden-like dish with almost no liquid left when done. The fragrant char of the grilled fish soaks deep into every ingredient, releasing a rich savor with every bite. Ingredients and seasoning vary slightly from household to household, reflecting the island's everyday life.
How it's made
A careful broth is made from grilled flying fish or similar ingredients, then konjac, grilled tofu, kelp and seasonal vegetables go into the pot and simmer slowly and repeatedly until almost no liquid remains. Taking this much time lets the flavor soak in fully, and the taste is said to deepen even further with each passing day. It's often served heaped generously on a large communal platter.
Why it took this shape
On this island, surrounded by the sea yet also blessed with mountain vegetables in spring and bamboo shoots in autumn, a dish that simmers down abundant ingredients without wasting any is said to have developed gradually over time. Grilled tofu is the one constant, while everything else is left to whatever vegetables each household's own field yields, a dish essential to festivals and celebrations that carries forward the flavor of each individual home.
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 Niigata
- AnboA Chuetsu-region dish of steamed rice-flour dumplings filled with sweet bean paste, pickled greens or eggplant. Similar in spirit to Nagano's oyaki but distinguished by its rice-flour skin, reflecting land suited to rice rather than wheat.
- Echigo misoA red, savory miso from Niigata, also called 'ukikoji miso' (floating-koji miso) because its polished whole-grain rice koji appears to float within the paste. Its style is said to vary across Niigata's Joetsu, Chuetsu, Kaetsu, and Sado districts, each shaped by local climate.
- Fugu no Ko no KasuzukeA rare Sado delicacy in which puffer fish ovaries are salt-cured for two years or more, then aged for a long stretch in Sado's sake lees. Only ovaries processed by licensed fugu chefs are sold, and the practice is said to date back to the Edo period.
- Fukashi NasuA Niigata dish of kinchaku eggplant halved, steamed, chilled and eaten with mustard or ginger soy sauce. In a prefecture among Japan's top eggplant producers, it is said to have been valued as a cooling dish through the summer.
- Hegi SobaA soba from Ojiya, Niigata, that uses funori seaweed, the same binder once used to size thread for the region's textiles, as a noodle binder. It is arranged in small bite-sized portions on a wooden box called a hegi.
- Hiyashijiru Miso JitateA chilled soup from the Chuetsu region, dashi thinned with miso and studded with chopped cucumber and shiso. Devised to stay appetizing through the summer heat, it is said to be eaten on its own or poured over rice or noodles.