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Wakagobo no Itameni
Wakagobo no itameni — Yao's leaf burdock stir-simmered with fried tofu
Wakagobo, a leaf burdock specialty of Yao whose root, stalk, and leaves are all eaten, is quickly stir-fried with fried tofu and simmered in dashi and soy sauce. Harvested in early spring as a herald of the season, it is said to have spread as a local specialty since the Edo period.
- Origin: Osaka Yao
- About 400 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
This dish stir-simmers waka-gobo, a specialty of Yao City, together with fried tofu. Eaten root, stalk, and leaf alike, unlike an ordinary burdock grown for its root, waka-gobo is prized for a refreshing aroma and crisp bite, and pairing it with the richness of fried tofu is said to make for a light, spring-like flavor. Harvested in early spring, it's said to have long been welcomed as a vegetable that announces the season.
How it's made
The root of the waka-gobo is cut into thin shavings and the stalks into three- or four-centimeter lengths, then soaked in water to remove bitterness. Fried tofu, its oil rinsed off, is cut into strips, and the root, tofu, and stalks are quickly stir-fried in that order before being seasoned with dashi, soy sauce, and mirin. Rich in rutin, iron, and fiber, it's said to be a nutritious dish as well, and while it's sometimes used in tempura or pasta, this simmered version is said to be the classic preparation.
Why it took this shape
Waka-gobo is a variety of leaf burdock harvested in early spring, distinct from the ordinary root-only burdock, and it's said to have spread mainly through cultivation around Yao City. Burdock is said to have arrived from China as a medicinal herb in the Heian period, and by the Edo era it had reportedly become an established specialty of Yao. A variety usable root, stalk, and leaf alike spread in the Showa era, and because it appears only briefly in early spring, this stir-simmered dish is thought to have become fixed as a side or accompaniment to sake for that short season.
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 Osaka
- AkanekoSteamed sticky rice pounded with wheat flour is dusted with sugar and soybean flour — also called hangesho mochi, for the rite marking the end of rice planting. The whole-ground wheat flour once left the mochi brownish, said to resemble a cat's round back and give the dish its name.
- BatteraThin slices of vinegared mackerel and white kelp sheet are pressed together in a wooden mold. A sushi shop in Minami-Senba is said to have devised it in 1891, naming it after the Portuguese word for a small boat because the original version, made with konoshiro, resembled one.
- Beni Shoga TenThin slices of red ginger, pickled in plum vinegar, are battered and deep-fried. The plum vinegar's tang and the ginger's bite are said to suit drinks well, and the fritter appears as a one-sen tempura in Sakunosuke Oda's 1940 novella 'Meoto Zenzai,' evidence of how long it has fed ordinary Osakans.
- Dote YakiParboiled beef tendon simmers for a long time against a bank of miso and mirin piled around the pan's edge like a levee, or dote. Rich and sweet-savory, it pairs well with drinks and is said to be a beloved downtown Osaka food, with many shops concentrated in the Shinsekai district.
- EhomakiA thick sushi roll eaten whole and in silence while facing the year's auspicious direction on Setsubun, the last day of winter. Its origin is not settled, but theories passed down include a game among the geisha quarters and a prayer for prosperity by Osaka's Semba merchant houses.