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Zuiki no Taitan
Zuiki no taitan — taro leaf-stalks simmered in a sweet soy broth
Zuiki, the leaf-stalks of taro, are parboiled and simmered in a sweet soy broth thickened with potato starch — a summer obanzai dish. The stalks also roof the portable shrine at Kitano Tenmangu's autumn Zuiki Matsuri, and are said to be traditionally eaten by new mothers after childbirth.
- Origin: Kyoto
- About 420 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
This summer obanzai slowly simmers zuiki, the taro's leaf stalk, in dashi. Its crisp bite and clean flavor are its calling card, and the slightly thickened dashi is said to cling well to the zuiki, with grated ginger adding an appetite-sharpening fragrance. Stalks with real firmness and thickness are said to be the ones to choose, and the leaf stalk of ebiimo, a taro variety closely tied to Kyoto cuisine, is also eaten as zuiki, it's said.
How it's made
Zuiki is de-bittered in vinegared water, then peeled and parboiled briefly in more vinegared water. It's then simmered in a dashi seasoned with soy sauce and mirin, thickened with a cornstarch slurry, and finished with a topping of grated ginger. Some cooks add deep-fried tofu or other umami-rich ingredients, or throw in flat green beans for extra texture, it's said, and some dress it instead with plum vinegar or sesame.
Why it took this shape
Zuiki is said to be believed to purify the blood, and it's said to be one of the dishes women traditionally ate after childbirth. At Kitano Tenmangu Shrine in Kyoto City, an autumn festival called the Zuiki Matsuri features a portable shrine roofed with zuiki as its centerpiece, it's said. As the weather starts to cool, the dish is said to be a must at celebrations and gatherings when people are invited over, reflecting how deeply this summer Kyoto vegetable is woven into daily life, and dried zuiki is also said to remain a postpartum food in various regions.
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 Kyoto
- Chirimen SanshoChirimen-jako simmered sweet-salty with fresh sansho peppercorns in sake, soy sauce, and mirin — a Kyoto side dish said to have begun as a cook's gift in the mid-Showa era. The peppercorns leave a sharp, fragrant aftertaste.
- Ebiimo to Bodara no TaitanEbi-imo, a striped Kyoto heirloom taro named for its shrimp-like ridges, simmers together with bodara, cod dried in Hokkaido. Gelatin from the dried cod is said to keep the taro from falling apart, while the taro's bitterness softens the cod — a textbook 'deaimon' pairing.
- Fushimi no SakeSake from Fushimi in Kyoto, a district fed by groundwater from the Momoyama plateau. Its water is said to be softer than Nada's, giving a round mouthfeel and gentle, full sweetness that overlaps with the profile recognized under the GI Kyoto geographical indication.
- GanmodokiTofu mixed with vegetables, rolled into balls, and fried. Known in Kyoto as hirousu or hiryōzu, thought to have taken this form through the vegetarian temple-cooking idea of a filling dish made without meat.
- Hamo no YakimonoPike conger, riddled with fine bones, is scored with the skilled honekiri cut and then grilled — teriyaki-glazed or salted — in Kyoto cuisine. Said to have taken root in landlocked Kyoto because the hardy fish could be carried in alive, it is also a festival food for Gion Matsuri, nicknamed the 'hamo festival.'
- Kamonasu DengakuKamonasu, a round Kyoto heirloom eggplant over 10cm across sometimes called the 'queen of eggplants,' is sliced and pan-fried in plenty of oil, then topped with a sweet miso reduced with sake and mirin. It is said to have long been grown on the alluvial fan of Kamigamo.