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Tofu Dengaku
Tofu dengaku — skewered tofu grilled with sweet miso glaze
Firm tofu is skewered, grilled, brushed with a sweet miso glaze, and grilled again until lightly charred. Popular as a vegetarian dish in temple-dense Shiga, it is traditionally made for Buddhist memorial gatherings and the winter solstice, and was once a specialty along the old Tokaido road.
- Origin: Shiga
- About 360 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Shiga-style tofu dengaku is firm tofu, drained of water, skewered and grilled, then brushed with scallion miso or kinome miso and lightly charred. Shiga has a high concentration of temples and a deeply religious character, and tofu-based vegetarian dishes are said to have long been made there as a result. The toasty grilled surface of the tofu meeting the sweetish scallion miso is said to make for a simple dish with real depth.
How it's made
Finely chopped scallion is ground well in a mortar, with miso and sugar worked in to make the scallion miso. Tofu, drained of water beforehand, is skewered and heated over a stove. Once it's browned, the other side is grilled too, and scallion miso is brushed on both sides before a light final char. More households are said to be grilling the tofu in a frying pan these days before adding the miso on top.
Why it took this shape
The dish is said to take its name from dengaku, dances performed to drum rhythms at rice-planting time to pray for a good harvest, whose performers wore white hakama with a colored jacket on top, a costume said to resemble skewered tofu. In the Hokubu area, it's reportedly made for hoonko, festivals, and the winter solstice, while in Ishibe and Kusatsu's Megawa in the Konan area, it's said to have been treasured as a specialty of the old Tokaido highway.
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 Shiga
- Aka Konnyaku NiKonjac dyed reddish with iron oxide, a specialty of Omi-Hachiman, is pan-simmered with bonito flakes and soy sauce. The color holds even after cooking, and the dish is a fixture at ceremonial meals and school lunches alike.
- Amenoio GohanA whole Lake Biwa trout, migrating upstream to spawn, is set atop rice and cooked together; "amenoio" means "rain fish," a name tied to the trout's autumn run after rainfall. The flesh and roe are flaked and mixed through the rice, traditionally made in large pots for gatherings.
- Biwamasu SashimiBiwamasu, a trout found only in Lake Biwa, is filleted and served raw as sashimi. The fish grows richest from early to midsummer and is prized locally as "the jewel of Lake Biwa" — a fish so scarce that it rarely reaches markets beyond the lakeshore.
- Chojifu no Karashi AeChojifu, a square baked wheat gluten unique to Shiga, is paired with cucumber and dressed in mustard-miso vinegar. The gluten also appears in Buddhist vegetarian meals, and its chewy texture with a refreshing tang makes the dish a staple at family gatherings.
- Dongame JiruEggplant scored with a crosshatch pattern is simmered in dashi, then finished with miso and ground sesame. Said to originate in the merchant town of Gokasho, the name compares the muddy look of the sesame in the broth and the eggplant's scored skin to a turtle's shell.
- Ebi MameFreshwater shrimp from Lake Biwa are simmered sweet-savory with soybeans. Inexpensive and long-keeping, the dish is eaten as everyday fare, but is also served at New Year's with a wish for long life — that one might live, like the bent-backed shrimp, into old age.