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Suzuki
Suzuki — pickled taro stem in sweet vinegar
Taro stems, known as zuiki, are cut short, had their bitterness drawn out, and pickled in sweet vinegar — the vinegar is said to brighten their red color, and the crunchy stems have long been eaten by women recovering after childbirth.
- Origin: Toyama
- About 260 km northwest of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
A vinegared dish made from zuiki, the stem of a taro leaf. Pale when raw, the stem turns a vivid red once steeped in vinegar, and each bite keeps a brisk, crunchy snap. A clean sourness lingers afterward, and the dish is said to have long served as a palate-cleansing side between richer fare, its bright color also lending the table a splash of festivity.
How it's made
The stem is peeled and cut into roughly four-centimeter pieces, then soaked in water to draw out bitterness. It is dry-fried in a pan until softened, and vinegar is sprinkled over it to fix the color. Once cooled, it is tossed in sweetened vinegar and left to rest in the refrigerator. Dried stems can also be rehydrated for use, giving the dish a keeping quality said to make it possible any time of year.
Why it took this shape
Fresh zuiki appears from summer into autumn, and much of it is prepared in batches during that window. Because it can be dried and stored, the dish is said to have kept people eating it as a vinegared or simmered side well past its season. Also known as a food thought to ease a mother's recovery after childbirth, the practice reflects a household habit of stretching a seasonal bounty as far as it will go.
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 Toyama
- Bai no NimonoWhelks from the deep waters of Toyama Bay are simmered whole in their shells — said to appear at celebrations thanks to a play on words suggesting doubled good fortune, with smaller whelks simmered and larger ones eaten raw.
- BekkoMelted agar is seasoned with soy sauce and mirin, then set with egg trailed in like threads — its amber color flecked with egg said to resemble a tortoiseshell hair ornament, giving the dish its name; in the west of the prefecture it goes by "yubeshi" instead.
- BurishabuThin slices of yellowtail are swished briefly through kelp broth, said to cook only the surface while leaving the center rare — versions using Himi's branded winter yellowtail are considered a particularly luxurious cold-weather treat.
- Genge no MisoshiruEelpout, a deep-sea fish covered in a gelatinous layer, is cut into chunks and simmered into a miso soup — long treated as an unwanted bycatch of sweet shrimp fishing, its flavor has since been reappraised and spread beyond the fishing villages that first ate it.
- Himi UdonA hand-stretched udon developed in Himi, Toyama, in the mid-Edo period by adapting somen-making techniques from Wajima. It was once presented to the Kaga domain as tribute.
- Hoonko RyoriA catch-all term for the dishes served at houonko, the memorial gathering held on the death anniversary of Jodo Shinshu's founder — the season's better vegetables and wild greens are said to be set aside for it apart from everyday use, with the devout Gokayama area of Nanto known for hearty stews of dried greens and local tofu.