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Shokuyogiku no Ohitashi
Shokuyogiku ohitashi — blanched edible chrysanthemum petals dressed in soy sauce
Petals of the purple 'mottenohoka' chrysanthemum are quickly blanched in vinegared water and dressed with soy sauce. Their tube-shaped petals give a crisp bite and gentle bitterness said to make this an everyday autumn side in Yamagata homes.
- Origin: Yamagata
- About 290 km north of Tokyo
What it's made of
This dish turns edible chrysanthemum petals into a bright, vinegar-dressed side, a specialty distinctive to Yamagata. Only the flower petals, vinegar, and soy sauce are used. Briefly blanched, the petals keep a crisp, almost crunchy bite and a faint bitterness, while the vinegar is said to help the color bloom vividly. Tubular-petaled purple varieties reportedly give the firmest texture.
How it's made
Petals are plucked from the calyx and quickly blanched in water with a splash of vinegar, then plunged into cold water to fix the color. After the water is squeezed out, the petals are dressed simply with soy sauce or dashi-soy sauce. Cooks are said to keep the blanching brief to preserve the crunch, and some add ground walnuts for extra richness.
Why it took this shape
Yamagata is known for growing edible chrysanthemums, and its wide seasonal temperature swings are thought to sharpen the flowers' color and aroma. As autumn tables grew short on color and nutrients, treating flower petals as a vegetable is said to have taken root as household wisdom. Blanching in vinegar-tinged water reportedly became the standard way to lock in both hue and texture during the flower's brief season.
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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 Yamagata
- Akayu Karamiso RamenMiso ramen with a knob of chili miso in the center, dissolved gradually to shift the flavor.
- Akebi no Miso ZumeyakiThe bittersweet rind of the akebia fruit is stuffed with minced meat and maitake mushroom simmered in miso and sugar, tied with kitchen string, and grilled. Elsewhere in Japan the white pulp is what gets eaten, but Yamagata is said to hold onto the unusual custom of eating the rind instead.
- DongarajiruWinter cod caught in the coldest weeks goes into a miso soup head to tail, innards included — said to trace back to fishermen's cooking on the Shonai coast. The liver's richness carries the flavor, and the traditional way adds only a scrap of rock nori, no scallion.
- Hatahata no YuageHatahata, scaleless sailfin sandfish that crowd the Shonai coast to spawn, are boiled whole and eaten with nothing more than grated daikon and soy sauce — a simple winter fish dish. With no scales to remove, it is said to have become a fixture of Shonai's autumn and winter table.
- Hyoboshi no NimonoPurslane, called hyo, is picked in summer, boiled, and sun-dried into a keeping food, then rehydrated and simmered with shirataki, carrot, and fried tofu for New Year. The name is said to be played on for luck — a wish that something good might happen, hyotto, this year.
- ImoniTaro, beef, konnyaku, and scallion simmer together in a soy-based autumn hot pot said to trace to boatmen on the Mogami River, who cooked taro and dried cod on the riverbank while waiting out the delays of cargo transport. On the Shonai coast the same dish turns to pork and miso.