Hot pot & soups
Kabu Zoni
Kabu zoni — turnip and mochi in a clear soy broth for New Year's
Round mochi, turnip, and mitsuba herb go into a clear soy broth for this New Year's soup. The mochi is added unbaked, giving the broth a slight thickness, and some households tie in a knot of dried squid for aroma—a custom centered on the Hagi area.
- Origin: Yamaguchi
- About 770 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Round mochi, turnip, and mitsuba herb go into a clear soy broth for this New Year's soup, eaten across Yamaguchi and centered on the Hagi area. The mochi is added unbaked, giving the broth a slight thickness, and tying in a knot of dried squid is said to add both aroma and visual interest. The turnip's gentle sweetness and the dried squid's savoriness dissolve into the clear stock, making for a bowl that brightens the New Year's table.
How it's made
Dried sardines are simmered in water over low heat for about ten minutes to make the stock. Turnip is cut into large fan shapes, and kelp and dried squid are shredded. The turnip and squid go into the stock and simmer until tender, then the broth is seasoned with soy sauce. Round mochi is added and cooked until soft, then the soup is ladled into bowls and topped with mitsuba. Boiling the stock too hard is said to dissolve the mochi, so care with the heat matters; in Abu, turnip greens are sometimes added as well.
Why it took this shape
New Year's soup varies strongly by region—eastern Japan tends to use grilled square mochi, western Japan simmered round mochi—and Yamaguchi is said to have settled on round mochi in a clear soy broth. In the Hagi area, pounding the New Year's mochi was traditionally the men's role, with the household's men steaming the rice and pounding it while the women prepared the rest of the New Year's arrangements. The finished mochi was first offered to the household gods and Buddha before taking its place in the soup.
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 Yamaguchi
- Chikin Chikin GoboBite-size fried chicken and deep-fried burdock are tossed in a sweet soy glaze in this dish, born in Yamaguchi's school lunches. A nutrition teacher is said to have devised it around 1995 from recipes submitted by families, and its catchy, rhythmic name helped it spread into a statewide favorite.
- Chisha NamasuKakichisha, an heirloom crinkled lettuce grown around Shimonoseki, is torn by hand and tossed with vinegared miso, flaked grilled fish, or whitebait. It is said to have been devised by the Mori domain's people after being impoverished by the Battle of Sekigahara, and is also known as "chishamomi."
- Choshu KurokashiwaSaid to draw on the blood of Kurokashiwa, a natural-monument fowl native to Yamaguchi and Shimane, developed into a jidori by a Yamaguchi research station and finished and named by a poultry farm; reportedly free-ranged for 80–100 days.
- Fugu no KaraagePufferfish, marinated in soy sauce and sake, is coated in potato starch and deep-fried—a homely dish from the Shimonoseki and Hagi areas. While pricier tiger pufferfish goes into sashimi and hot pot, the more affordable shirosabafugu species is the one most often fried this way.
- Fuku SashiPufferfish sashimi is sliced so thin it becomes translucent, then arranged in a chrysanthemum pattern in this Shimonoseki dish. Locals call the fish "fuku," a homophone for good fortune, and eat it with citrus ponzu and scallion; the practice traces to 1888, when eating pufferfish was legalized in Yamaguchi alone.
- GobomakiLizardfish skin, a byproduct of making fish cakes, is wrapped around a skewer of burdock root and grilled with a basting sauce—a dish from Hagi. Because it uses lizardfish, prized for the region's grilled fish cakes, seafood processors often make the two together, and it is a fixture of festival and cherry-blossom bento.