Hot pot & soups
Kashiwa Wan
Kashiwa wan — a clear chicken and shiitake soup served for formal occasions
Chicken—"kashiwa" in the dish's name—and shiitake are each simmered separately to absorb flavor, then set in a bowl and covered with a cooled broth. Prized for how elegantly it can be arranged, it has long accompanied the drinking course at Yamaguchi weddings and memorial gatherings.
- Origin: Yamaguchi
- About 770 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Chicken—"kashiwa" in the dish's name—and shiitake are each simmered separately to absorb flavor, then set into a bowl and covered with a cooled clear broth, in this hospitality soup from Yamaguchi. Glass noodles, rehydrated wheat-gluten cake, and garland chrysanthemum are arranged for color, and the dish's appeal lies in how the ingredients show through the clear broth once it's poured in. Yuzu peel or sansho leaves are sometimes added for a seasonal touch of aroma.
How it's made
Chicken is scalded to remove any odor, then simmered in a mixture of water, soy sauce, and sugar before being set aside. Shiitake is simmered in the same liquid to take on its flavor, and garland chrysanthemum is briefly cooked and removed as well. Glass noodles are boiled, and wheat-gluten cake is rehydrated in water. The simmering liquid is thinned with water to a light, soup-like seasoning, used to flavor the gluten cake, then cooled to make the pouring broth. The ingredients are arranged in the bowl for color, and the cooled broth is poured in gently.
Why it took this shape
Hosting guests once followed a set order—a formal meal of rice, soup, vinegared dishes, and simmered dishes, followed by a course meant for drinking—and kashiwa wan is said to have served as part of that later, drink-oriented course. Simmering each ingredient apart and pouring in a cooled broth appears to be a technique aimed at showing the bowl's colors to best effect, and the dish has been carried forward as fare suited to the hospitality of weddings, funerals, and other formal occasions.
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.