Hot pot & soups
Dango-jiru
Dango-jiru — hand-stretched wheat noodles simmered in miso soup
Wheat dough kneaded and stretched into flat ribbons is simmered with root vegetables and shiitake in a barley-miso broth — an everyday Oita dish born of the prefecture's flour-based food culture, where poor rice land pushed wheat to the fore; the ribbons keep a firmer bite than udon.
- Origin: Oita
- About 800 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Dango-jiru is an Oita home dish of flat wheat-flour dumplings, kneaded and stretched into thin ribbons, simmered with vegetables in a miso-based broth. The dumplings are chewier than udon, closer in shape to kishimen noodles, and the broth, often made from shiitake mushroom and dried sardine, brings out their plain wheat flavor. It's considered a soul food in Oita, warming the body through the cold months.
How it's made
Wheat flour is kneaded with water, left to rest, then stretched into thin ribbons before going into the broth; the thinness reportedly helps the flavor soak in as it simmers. Households add whatever vegetables are on hand, such as carrot, scallion, burdock, daikon, shiitake, taro, or napa cabbage, and season with miso or sometimes soy sauce. It is a simple soup that generally leaves out meat.
Why it took this shape
Much of Oita's plateau land was reportedly poorly suited to rice farming, so wheat cultivation took hold early and a flour-based food culture developed. In times when rice was scarce, this dish is said to have served as an everyday substitute. It is said to take its name from the way the dough is rolled into a ball and rested before stretching, and the ribbons are kept thin so the broth's flavor soaks in more easily. A version known as "dago-jiru" is enjoyed in Fukuoka and Kumamoto.
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.
- At yakiniku, shabu-shabu, and hot potGrilling your own meat at yakiniku, swishing thin slices at shabu-shabu, and sharing from the pot — the customs behind each.
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
Contrast
- HochoWheat dough is hand-stretched into noodles over two meters long, then dipped into a broth of shiitake and dried sardine seasoned with condiments — a noodle dish from the Betsuji district of Oita City, its name said to come from warlord Otomo Sorin likening the strands to abalone intestine.
- YaseumaWheat dough is stretched thin and long by hand, boiled, then dusted with sweetened soybean flour — an Oita sweet said to trace back to Furuno in Yufu City, its name linked to a nursemaid's tale of feeding a hungry young lord; a companion, alongside dango-jiru, to the prefecture's flour-based food culture.
Also from Oita
- Aji no MaruzushiA whole horse mackerel, cured in plum vinegar and opened flat, is wrapped around vinegared rice and rolled in red shiso leaf — a celebratory sushi from Saiki, painstaking to prepare, built on the rich mackerel landed from the Bungo Channel.
- AmimeshiKrill simmered sweet-savory in mirin, soy sauce, and ginger is folded into freshly steamed rice — a dish from the Usa, Nakatsu, and Bungotakada coast, where krill are hauled from the Buzen Sea tideflats each autumn and winter; a favorite of the northern Oita coast.
- Atama RyoriGills, jaw, and innards of a large fish like grouper are quickly parboiled along with the flesh and piled onto a single platter — a dish from inland Taketa, far from the sea, said to have grown from a wish to waste nothing of a rare catch, served with a citrus dipping sauce.
- Ayu UrukaAyu (sweetfish) flesh or innards are minced with salt and left to ferment for about a week — an Oita salted delicacy said to have begun as a way to keep the clean river's seasonal catch; the innards-only version, nigauruka, carries a distinctive bitterness.
- Beppu ReimenThe dish's spread is traced to around 1950, when a cook repatriated from what had been Manchuria began making cold noodles in Beppu. Genso Arirang, founded that same year, is often named as the pioneering shop; the local style pairs a Japanese-style seafood stock with noodles made from buckwheat, wheat, and starch.
- Gan-jiruA live mitten crab is ground shell and all, strained, and simmered into a broth seasoned with salt or soy sauce — a Usa dish in which the protein sets into soft curds as it heats, often gathered with mustard greens added to draw out more flavor.