Hot pot & soups
Hiyajiru
Hiyajiru — cold sesame-miso soup poured over noodles or rice in summer
Sesame and miso ground in a mortar, mixed with summer vegetables like cucumber and shiso, then chilled with cold water. It serves as a dipping broth for udon in noodle-loving Saitama, and Kawajima town calls it suttate.
- Origin: Saitama Kawajima
- About 50 km northwest of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
This chilled dipping sauce for udon blends ground vegetables and sesame-miso paste with cold water. The refreshing bite of summer vegetables like cucumber, shiso, and myoga meets the toasty depth of sesame and miso, giving a light dish for eating through the heat, its chill making the noodles slip down all the more easily.
How it's made
Sesame and miso are ground together in a mortar, then refreshing summer vegetables—cucumber, shiso, myoga—are ground in as well. Cold water is poured in at the end and mixed through. It is served as a dipping sauce for udon, though some are said to simply pour it over rice, with grinding the vegetables themselves said to be a local hallmark.
Why it took this shape
The dish is said to have taken shape in a land with a strong udon culture, where wheat was widely grown as a second crop after rice. Requiring little effort during the busy farming season, this soup made with freshly harvested vegetables from the fertile, river-bound lowlands is said to have become a staple among farming households, known by different names from place to place.
Before You Go
- Foods to look for in summerA guide to foods often seen in Japan around summer — eel on the Day of the Ox, hiyashi chuka, somen, shaved ice, edamame with beer, and hamo — with rough pointers for finding them.
- 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 Saitama
- Sakekasu Miso RamenA winter-only ramen from Ageo City, where sake lees from a long-running local brewery are worked into a Chinese restaurant's miso broth. The lees' depth and aroma layer over the miso's savoriness, leaving a mellow finish that warms the body in the cold months.
- Dojo NiPond loach caught in the paddies of eastern Saitama, simmered sweet and savory with shaved burdock, from a land fed by the Arakawa and Tone rivers. Rich in nutrients, it was valued as a tonic and a food for pregnant women.
- Gyoda Furai"Furai" from around Gyoda, Saitama, despite its name, isn't fried — it's grilled. Chopped scallion and pork go on a wheat-flour batter cooked on a griddle, an okonomiyaki-like snack said to have caught on with the women working the town's tabi-sock factories.
- Higashimatsuyama YakitoriPork cheek grilled over charcoal and brushed with a spicy miso sauce.
- Iga ManjuA sweet bean bun wrapped in red rice and steamed, said to originate in Konosu. Named for its resemblance to a spiky chestnut burr, it balances a sweet-salty flavor with a chewy bite.
- IimochiLeftover rice kneaded with wheat flour, shaped and pan-grilled flat, a Saitama snack. In an era of hand-worked farming, it could be made in the morning and carried to the fields like a packed lunch. Names for it vary by area.