Hot pot & soups
Kuuri Jishi
Kuuri jishi — a clear pork soup finished with egg poured like falling snow
Pork belly, winter melon, and burdock are set in a clear broth, finished with beaten egg poured gently over the surface. The name means 'ice meat,' said to come from how the egg spreads like snow across the bowl — once made as an Obon offering, back when eggs were still precious.
- Origin: Okinawa Naha
- About 1560 km southwest of Tokyo
What it's made of
Pork belly, winter melon, and burdock root simmer into this egg-drop soup. A deep stock built from pork, bonito, and shiitake carries the winter melon's meltingly soft texture and the egg's fluffy ribbons into a gentle, comforting bowl. The name combines words for ice and meat, said to describe how the egg spreads across the bowl like drifting snow.
How it's made
Pork belly is boiled and cut into strips, and winter melon and burdock, peeled, are cut the same way. Pork and bonito stocks are brought to a boil and the ingredients simmered in it, then seasoned with salt and soy sauce into a clear soup once cooked through. Beaten egg, lightly salted, is poured over the surface of the broth to set into ribbons. The firmer flesh near the winter melon's skin is said to hold up better in the pot than the softer flesh near its core.
Why it took this shape
In an era when eggs were a precious ingredient, the dish is said to have been made for Obon as an expression of welcome to the spirits of ancestors, though it is prepared far less often today. Few dishes carry the word kuuri in their name; the only other one on record is a now largely forgotten kamaboko called kuuri hanbin, layered from alternating strips of green and white fish cake.
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 Okinawa
- Ashi TibichiPig's trotters are simmered for hours with kelp and daikon until the bone slides free on its own. Rooted in the belief that eating a body part heals the same part in the eater, it's traditionally favored by older people, anyone with trouble in the legs, or those minding their skin.
- AwamoriA distilled spirit from Okinawa made only from Thai rice and black koji, with every grain of rice turned into koji in a method called zen-koji-jikomi. Citric acid from the black koji is said to keep the mash from spoiling even in hot, humid conditions, and it's classified alongside shochu as a single-distillation spirit.
- Chii IrichiiPork blood is worked with pork meat, carrot, and wood-ear mushroom into a distinctive stir-simmered dish. Rooted in the same eat-what-ails-you logic as ashi tibichi, it was thought to guard against anemia, and it's traditionally offered before Lunar New Year and at memorial services.
- Chimu ShinjiPork liver and a native yellow carrot are simmered down almost like a medicinal decoction, meant for days the body needs support. It follows the kusuimun idea that food itself can be medicine, and is traditionally made for anemia or when someone's caught a cold.
- Gooyaa ChanpuruuBitter goya is stir-fried together with Okinawa's firm tofu and egg. A dish only earns the name champuru once tofu is in it, and this one has long served double duty — coaxing back a summer-flagged appetite while delivering vitamin C, now eaten year-round.
- HanazakeA distilled spirit made only on Yonaguni, Japan's westernmost island, at around 60 percent alcohol. Its raw materials and method are the same as awamori, but because its proof exceeds awamori's legal ceiling, it's classified as 'spirits' rather than awamori under the liquor tax law.