Hot pot & soups
Chobojiru
Chobojiru — a sweet-free dumpling soup with cowpeas and taro-stem, made for new mothers
An Awaji Island soup of cowpeas, taro-stem, and rice-flour dumplings simmered in a thick broth — it looks like a sweet red bean soup but is not sweet at all. It has been made to help new mothers recover and to mark a child's shrine visit, it is said.
- Origin: Hyogo
- About 470 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
A thickened broth holds dumplings made from glutinous rice flour together with cowpeas and zuiki, the stalks of taro. It resembles a sweet red bean soup in appearance but is not sweet, with a chewy dumpling texture and the rich flavor of the cowpeas.
How it's made
Dumplings made from glutinous rice flour are simmered in broth with cowpeas and zuiki, then miso is stirred in to finish. In households with a daughter, the dumplings are reportedly shaped with a dimple in the center; where a son was born, they are shaped with a pointed end.
Why it took this shape
Cowpeas and rice-flour dumplings are nutrient-rich, and zuiki is said to help purify the blood, so mothers reportedly made this soup to help daughters recover strength after childbirth. The name is said to come from a wish that the child would grow up with a cute pursed mouth, and the dumpling shapes are also said to carry wishes for the child's healthy growth. It is still made for shrine visits marking a newborn's first month, and shared with relatives and neighbors.
Before you go
- Foods to look for in winterA guide to foods often seen in Japan around winter — nabe hot pot, fugu, oysters, crab, year-end soba, and osechi — with rough pointers for finding them.
- Osechi and zoni for the New YearA guide to the meaning behind osechi's tiered boxes, the regional differences in zoni (square vs. round mochi, clear vs. miso broth), and the nanakusa-gayu custom.
- Setsubun: ehomaki and lucky beansA guide to ehomaki, the uncut sushi roll said to be eaten facing a lucky direction on Setsubun, and to mamemaki, the bean-throwing custom with roasted lucky beans.
Dishes in the same style
- Aichi Miso OdenA pot of sweet red miso sits in the center of the simmering pot, and daikon, tofu, and other ingredients simmered in dashi are dipped into it before eating. While soy-based Kanto-style oden spread in Edo, Aichi is said to have settled on dipping in soybean miso instead.
- Aichi ZoniSquare mochi and mochina, a traditional Owari green, are served in a plain clear broth for New Year — a notably simple zoni. It's speculated that using miso so often in daily cooking is exactly why a clear broth is chosen for this festive occasion, deliberately leaving miso out.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Hyogo
- AkashiyakiOctopus folded into a batter of wheat flour, jin-ko starch, egg, and dashi, cooked and dipped in a warm broth — Akashi's own take on the round batter-and-octopus dish, distinguished from takoyaki by that broth in place of sauce.
- Ako saltA salt tied to Japan's earliest full-scale commercial saltfields, using the irihama tidal-field method perfected in the Edo period. Controlling seawater with channels and embankments let work continue regardless of the tide, and the method is said to have remained Japan's main salt-making approach for some 300 years.
- Awaji BeefPure Tajima-line cattle raised on Awaji Island, a brand producers founded in 1986 — selected for balance between lean and fat rather than marbling volume, with a small annual output.
- Banshu RamenA distinctly sweet soy broth, said to have taken root among the town's textile-mill workers.
- Banshu Tenobe SomenA document held at Ikaruga-ji temple in Taishi records the word 'saumen' in an entry dated 1418, the oldest known reference to somen in Hyogo. In the Edo period the Ryuno domain formally licensed and encouraged the trade, built on locally grown wheat, the clear Ibo River, and salt from Ako.
- Botan NabeA Tanba-Sasayama hot pot of wild boar and seasonal vegetables simmered in a broth of white and red miso, often finished with a dusting of ground Japanese pepper. Some restaurants are said to arrange the sliced boar meat like the petals of a peony.