Hot pot & soups
Dongame Jiru
Dongame jiru — miso soup of scored eggplant and sesame
Eggplant scored with a crosshatch pattern is simmered in dashi, then finished with miso and ground sesame. Said to originate in the merchant town of Gokasho, the name compares the muddy look of the sesame in the broth and the eggplant's scored skin to a turtle's shell.
- Origin: Shiga Higashiomi
- About 330 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Dongame-jiru simmers summer eggplant in a miso soup thickened with ground sesame. The sesame dissolved into the broth is said to look muddy, and the crosshatched cuts scored into the eggplant's skin are said to resemble a tortoise shell, together giving the soup its name, which translates as muddy tortoise soup. The sesame's toasty richness melting into the eggplant's silky texture is said to revive an appetite dulled by summer heat.
How it's made
Eggplant is halved lengthwise, scored with diagonal crosshatch cuts in the skin, and larger pieces are halved again crosswise to help draw out bitterness. It's simmered in dashi until soft. Miso is stirred in, and ground sesame is added just before it comes to a boil to finish. Some households reportedly stir in ground rice porridge at this point to thicken the broth further.
Why it took this shape
The soup is said to have been made in summer in the homes of Omi merchants in the Gokasho district, pairing eggplant, which helps release heat from the body, with sesame, said to aid recovery from fatigue, into a dish that makes practical sense. Those Omi merchants are thought to have chosen healthy, seasonally fitting dishes through experience rather than any formal knowledge of nutrition, and the soup is said to have spread from the Koto area across the whole prefecture.
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
Also from Shiga
- Aka Konnyaku NiKonjac dyed reddish with iron oxide, a specialty of Omi-Hachiman, is pan-simmered with bonito flakes and soy sauce. The color holds even after cooking, and the dish is a fixture at ceremonial meals and school lunches alike.
- Amenoio GohanA whole Lake Biwa trout, migrating upstream to spawn, is set atop rice and cooked together; "amenoio" means "rain fish," a name tied to the trout's autumn run after rainfall. The flesh and roe are flaked and mixed through the rice, traditionally made in large pots for gatherings.
- Biwamasu SashimiBiwamasu, a trout found only in Lake Biwa, is filleted and served raw as sashimi. The fish grows richest from early to midsummer and is prized locally as "the jewel of Lake Biwa" — a fish so scarce that it rarely reaches markets beyond the lakeshore.
- Chojifu no Karashi AeChojifu, a square baked wheat gluten unique to Shiga, is paired with cucumber and dressed in mustard-miso vinegar. The gluten also appears in Buddhist vegetarian meals, and its chewy texture with a refreshing tang makes the dish a staple at family gatherings.
- Ebi MameFreshwater shrimp from Lake Biwa are simmered sweet-savory with soybeans. Inexpensive and long-keeping, the dish is eaten as everyday fare, but is also served at New Year's with a wish for long life — that one might live, like the bent-backed shrimp, into old age.
- Funa-zushiRoe-bearing crucian carp from Lake Biwa, salted and then packed in rice to ferment for half a year or more — the archetype of narezushi. Sharply sour and pungent, some eat the rice too, others scrape it off.