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Zukigashi
Zukigashi — boiled taro stems dressed in a sweet-vinegar dressing
Zuiki — the stem of yatsugashira, a variety of taro — is boiled and dressed in a sweet vinegar mixed with soy sauce and yuzu vinegar. Said to be prized for its crisp texture, the stem turns a dull black when boiled but flushes a vivid red once dressed in vinegar.
- Origin: Tokushima
- About 510 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Zukigashi dresses boiled zuiki — the petiole of the yatsugashira taro plant — in a sweet-tart vinegar sauce. Raw zuiki has a pale purple color that turns almost black once boiled, then shifts to a vivid red once tossed in vinegar, making the dish a striking addition to the table. Boiled just enough, it keeps a crisp, crunchy bite, and the dressing — a mix of sugar, soy sauce, and yuzu vinegar made from Tokushima's local citrus — gives it a sweet and tangy flavor.
How it's made
The zuiki is peeled, cut into roughly five-centimeter lengths, soaked in vinegar water to remove bitterness, and then boiled. It's combined with thinly sliced fried tofu that has had its oil rinsed off, and dressed in a vinegar mix of sugar, soy sauce, and yuzu vinegar. Some households sauté the zuiki instead of boiling it, or rehydrate dried zuiki rather than using it fresh. Since handling raw zuiki can make the skin itch, wetting the hands with vinegar beforehand is said to be a useful trick.
Why it took this shape
Zukigashi is said to have appeared on tables once sugar became easier for ordinary households to use. It was commonly eaten in summer, before the taro harvest, and appears to have developed as a way of making full use of the zuiki that comes off the plant while growing the taro itself, rather than letting it go to waste. Some households add grated sudachi peel for extra fragrance, making it a refreshing dish tied to the season's citrus.
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 Tokushima
- Amego no HirarayakiA flat stone is heated over a hearth for hours, then a border of miso is built on it to grill amego trout, stone tofu, and konjac — an outdoor dish from the Iya valley. Its name comes from hirara, a local word for a flat stone, and it is said to have long served as a dish for entertaining guests.
- Awa BanchaA post-fermented tea from Naka and Kamikatsu towns in Tokushima, fermented by lactic acid bacteria. Coarser leaves picked from midsummer on are boiled, packed into wooden barrels, fermented for roughly 10 days to two weeks, then sun-dried — said to give a refreshing sourness.
- Awa BitonRaised in the mountains of Awa City, Tokushima, at about 400 meters, on a feed centered on rice. Handlers are said to adjust the feed mix daily and avoid genetically modified crops where possible.
- Awa GyuPedigreed Japanese Black fattened in Tokushima, which gained recognition after being shown at a Tokyo meat market competition in 1962 — said to have a moist, fine-grained texture and modest fat.
- Awa no ItokoniSweet potato that has been boiled then dried — yude-boshi style — is rehydrated and simmered slowly with red beans for about two hours over low heat. Fitting for a region where drying vegetables is common in winter, it is said to be a warming side dish built on the concentrated flavor of dried sweet potato.
- Awa UiroRed bean paste mixed with rice flour and Awa wasanbon sugar is poured into a mold and steamed into a chewy cake. Said to have first been made to celebrate the completion of Awa wasanbon sugar in the Edo period, with related uiro cakes also found in Nagoya and Yamaguchi.