Hot pot & soups
Iriyaki
Iriyaki — a Tsushima hot pot of home-raised chicken or local fish, its broth finished with soba or somen
Home-raised chicken or fresh local fish is simmered in camellia oil for this hot pot, said to have been made for guests at celebrations and services. After the solids are eaten, the broth is traditionally finished with local taishu soba noodles or somen.
- Origin: Nagasaki Tsushima
- About 970 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
A Tsushima hot pot with two lineages — one centered on chicken, the other on local fish like yellowtail or amberjack. Fatty winter yellowtail is the standard choice in the cold season, and with sugar and mirin added alongside soy sauce, the broth is said to come out on the sweeter side. The broth left after the solids are eaten is said to carry an especially deep flavor of its own.
How it's made
Chicken, or local fish such as yellowtail, amberjack, grouper or conger eel, is simmered with tofu, konjac, carrot, napa cabbage, onion, burdock, leek and shiitake. Many households season the broth with soy sauce plus sugar and mirin. Once the solid ingredients are eaten, locals are said to finish by adding somen or Tsushima's own buckwheat noodles to the remaining broth, a custom summed up in the local saying that 'iriyaki is best eaten twice.'
Why it took this shape
The custom is said to have been that whenever people gathered for a celebration or a funeral, a household would slaughter a home-raised chicken and make a hot pot to serve them, a practice believed to have led to today's dish. Coastal fishing households are thought to have substituted local fish for chicken, which is seen as the reason both a chicken-based and a fish-based version survive side by side. The name is said to come from first frying the chicken or fish in camellia oil, a method some trace to a cooking technique described in a Heian-era text.
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 Nagasaki
- ArumadoA hard-boiled egg dyed pink is wrapped in fish paste and steamed into a kamaboko log that shows a pink-rimmed cross-section when cut — a Hirado specialty, with kin dishes called "arimado" in Sasebo and "ryugan" in Nagasaki.
- Goto UdonA hand-pulled noodle from Shinkamigoto, Nagasaki. Its technique is thought to trace back to envoys returning from Tang China, and the island's camellia oil is worked into the dough for a smooth, elastic bite.
- HanahajikiCucumber, carrot, deep-fried tofu, and shrimp are cut into strips and fanned out on a plate to be dipped in a hot mustard vinegar-miso — a dish from Isahaya said to be named for how the mustard "flicks the nose," traditionally served at Buddhist memorial services.
- HatoshiShrimp and squid paste sandwiched in bread and deep-fried, a Nagasaki specialty said to have arrived from China in the Meiji era, growing from a shippoku banquet course into a food loved across the city.
- HikadoFish or chicken and vegetables like daikon and carrot are diced fine and simmered, thickened at the end with grated sweet potato — said to originate in a meat stew eaten by Portuguese residents of Nagasaki, its name from the Portuguese word for "minced."