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Wakegi no Nuta
Wakegi no nuta — bunching onion dressed in sweet white miso and vinegar
Mild, sweet bunching onion is dressed with white miso, sugar, and vinegar. Because its bulb splits and multiplies on its own, the vegetable is treated as a symbol of fertility, and around Onomichi—a well-known producer—the dish is said to appear at the Girls' Festival in spring.
- Origin: Hiroshima Onomichi
- About 610 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Boiled wakegi, a mild relative of the scallion, dressed in a mix of white miso, sugar, vinegar, and mirin. Wakegi carries a gentle sweetness and soft aroma without the sharpness of regular scallion, and some households use a mustard-spiked vinegar-miso instead for extra bite.
How it's made
The wakegi is cut into roughly 3cm lengths, boiled, and tossed in a dressing of white miso, sugar, vinegar, and mirin. Some households add octopus, clams, fried tofu, or fish cake. Beyond this dish, wakegi also turns up in dumplings, stir-fries, salads, and rolled omelets.
Why it took this shape
Wakegi multiplies by splitting bulbs rather than seeding, sometimes turning one bulb into fifty within half a year, and is said to have been treated as a symbol of fertility eaten around the Doll's Festival for that reason. Its name is said to come from a term meaning "green onion split at the root into many stalks." The mild climate of the Seto coast suits its cultivation, and Onomichi is said to have grown into a leading production area from early on.
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
Contrast
- NutaLeek is dressed with obaike—sliced whale tail—in a sweet white-miso vinegar sauce, a dish from the Hokuura coast. Whaling has thrived here since the Edo period, and using every part of the catch became second nature, with the tail's crunchy, gelatinous texture prized in this dish.
- Igisu DofuA red seaweed called igisu is simmered with raw soybean flour until it sets on its own into a firm, agar-like jelly. Served with vinegared miso or ginger soy sauce, it was often made in Setouchi coastal towns when relatives gathered for Obon or local festivals.
Also from Hiroshima
- Anago MeshiConger eel, grilled kabayaki-style, is sliced and layered over rice cooked in dashi—a dish from Miyajima. It uses "Seto anago," prized for the fat that fast currents help build into the fish, and is said to have begun in 1901 as a bento sold at Miyajimaguchi station.
- AzumaSardine-like mamakari, cured in vinegar, is pressed onto seasoned okara instead of vinegared rice in this coastal sushi. It is said to have begun as a way to stretch scarce rice by substituting the cheap, plentiful soy pulp, and was served at festivals and New Year's gatherings.
- Bishu NabeChicken, gizzard, and pork are simmered with nothing more than salt, pepper, and sake in this hot pot from Saijo, one of Japan's noted brewing towns. It is said to have begun as a simple meal cooked by sake brewers between batches, seasoned lightly so as not to dull their palate for tasting.
- EbamakiRice is tossed with Hiroshima-na pickle, bonito flakes, and sesame, then rolled in toasted nori—a roll from Hiroshima's Eba district, long known for seaweed cultivation. The ends are sometimes tucked shut so it can be eaten one-handed while rowing, a food born for nori fishermen working on the water.
- Fuchu-yakiA Fuchu, Hiroshima take on okonomiyaki that swaps sliced pork belly for ground beef or pork worked right into the batter, so the meat's flavor is said to come through evenly in every bite.
- GansuFish paste coated in panko and fried, a Kure, Hiroshima specialty. Said to have been devised in the postwar 1940s as a way to use leftover fish paste from kamaboko production, an unusual pairing of fried fish cake and cutlet-style crumb.