Hot pot & soups
Imo no Ko Jiru
Imo no ko jiru — a taro, chicken and root vegetable soup shared outdoors in autumn
Autumn taro is simmered with chicken, tofu, daikon and carrot in a soy broth — a fall favorite of the taro-growing Kitakami river valley, still enjoyed at riverside "imoni-kai" gatherings around Kitakami's Futako district.
- Origin: Iwate Kitakami
- About 420 km north of Tokyo
What it's made of
A soup from along the Kitakami River, made by cutting autumn taro into bite-sized pieces and simmering it with carrot, daikon, burdock, mushrooms, konnyaku, tofu and chicken. Rich in a wide range of ingredients in a single bowl, it varies with its source: "Futago" taro is prized for a sticky, soft texture, while "Tsushida" taro is known for a fluffier bite, it is said.
How it's made
Taro, daikon, carrot, burdock, cotton tofu and chicken are simmered together and seasoned with soy sauce; some areas add pork or miso, it is said. In the Futago district of Kitakami, the taro is peeled by gently scraping rather than cutting, and no other root vegetables are added, a method said to let the taro's own flavor come through clearly.
Why it took this shape
The soil along the Kitakami River suits taro cultivation, and it is said to have been grown widely there for a long time. The soup is said to have been served as a treat once the autumn rice harvest wrapped up or whenever people gathered, valued also as a warming dish. The custom of groups gathering along the riverbank to eat this soup together is thought to continue today as a fixture of autumn.
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 Iwate
- Azuki BattoRested wheat dough cut into wide noodle strips is served in a sugar-sweetened red-bean broth — made along the Sanriku coast for building-raising and harvest celebrations, with a custom of eating it seven times on the seventh day of Obon for good health.
- Hecchoko DangoDumplings of millet and sorghum flour, each dimpled in the center, are simmered in a sweet red-bean soup — also called "ukiuki dango," a harvest-close treat from rice-poor northern Iwate where they float to the surface as they cook.
- Hina ManjuRice-flour dough tinted with food coloring is wrapped around red-bean paste and shaped into flowers, peaches or rabbits using wooden molds — tied to a doll-viewing custom in Hanamaki's Ohasama area, offered alongside kirisensho at the Girls' Festival.
- Hizu NamasuThin slices of cartilage from a salmon's head — "hizu" — are salted, cured in vinegar and tossed with daikon and carrot namasu — a rare delicacy from just one small part of the fish, a New Year dish where salmon run up Miyako Bay.
- Dento Mochi RyoriAn umbrella term for some 300 ways of dressing mochi — sweet red bean, edamame paste, walnut, natto, zoni and more. A domain-era custom of pounding mochi twice a month left Ichinoseki with a "mochi calendar" of 60-plus occasions a year and a formal ceremonial mochi course still observed today.
- Iwachu ButaDesignated brand-pork No. 1 by the Tokyo Meat Market's branded-pork association — the first pork in Japan to receive such certification. Raised on an Iwate farm under SPF hygiene standards.