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Seige
Seige — female snow crab simmered with grated daikon and miso
The legs and shell of female snow crab are simmered in a clay pot with grated daikon, finished with miso and a scrap of rock nori — a fishermen's dish from the Kono district of Minami-Echizen. The shell is said to lend a good broth, eaten over rice or alongside sake.
- Origin: Fukui Minamiechizen
- About 330 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Legs and shell of the female snow crab, called seiko-gani, simmered in miso with grated daikon, so the rich broth that seeps from the shell meets the miso's depth and the daikon's fresh bite. A scatter of rock seaweed at the end lifts a briny aroma, and it's said to be equally good spooned over rice or eaten alongside a drink, with the roe's faint bitterness part of the appeal.
How it's made
Boiled crab legs are broken at the joint and set in a clay pot with a generous mound of grated daikon, simmered until cooked through, then finished with miso stirred in and a scatter of rock seaweed added just before the heat goes off. It's said to trace back to fishermen who once used the shell itself as a bowl aboard the boat, and every household is said to have its own version.
Why it took this shape
The Kono district of Minami-Echizen is said to have thrived on fishing, and because female crabs carrying roe have a short season set aside for conservation, they were once said to stay local rather than being shipped out, eaten as an everyday dish. In a district shaped by the old Kitamae cargo ships, simmering the whole shell in miso to use every part of the catch is said to be how this fisherman's dish took hold.
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 Fukui
- Atsuage no NitaThick fried tofu, blanched and scored with a cross cut, is simmered sweet-savory in dashi, soy sauce, and mirin with a dash of ginger juice. Fukui leads the country in fried-tofu consumption, and this dish is said to have moved from a Honkoko feast dish into everyday cooking.
- BokkakeThick fried tofu, burdock, and shirataki noodles are simmered in a bonito broth and poured hot, broth and all, over freshly cooked rice — eaten for over a century since the early 1910s. In Katsuyama it is said to take a chazuke-like turn, topped with fish cake and mitsuba.
- ChameshiRoasted soybeans are steeped in hot roasted barley tea, and rice is then cooked in that same tea — a dish from the old post town of Imajo, said to descend from Nara's 'nara-chameshi'. It is said to be indispensable at memorial services, Honkoko, and for daughters visiting home.
- Choju NamasuGround sesame is worked into a paste with miso, thick fried tofu, mustard, and vinegar, then tossed with shredded daikon, carrot, and snap peas — a New Year salad whose name literally wishes long life, also said to appear at memorial services and Honkoko.
- Decchi YokanSweet red bean paste is set with agar, sugar, and a pinch of salt into a thin, water-yokan-like winter confection. It is said to have begun when a young apprentice, home for New Year from a Kyoto shop, stretched a bar of yokan with water to share with neighbors, eaten by the kotatsu.
- Echizen Oroshi SobaA cold soba from Echizen, Fukui, topped with grated daikon and bonito flakes. It is said to originate with a soba maker a local lord brought from Kyoto to promote buckwheat as an emergency food crop.