Hot pot & soups
Kyoto Shiromiso Zoni
Kyoto shiromiso zoni — a white miso mochi soup with taro and daikon for New Year's
Round mochi, kashira-imo taro, and daikon simmer in a broth loosened with white miso — said to date to Heian-era Kyoto — for New Year's zoni. The round mochi wishes for harmony, the taro for success, the daikon for a long, round life, and some households add red kintoki carrot too.
- Origin: Kyoto
- About 370 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
This New Year's zoni sets round mochi, kashiraimo taro, and daikon in a mellow, sweet white-miso broth. Because white miso ferments briefly and uses less salt, the whole bowl is wrapped in a gentle sweetness, with the kashiraimo's mealy texture and the daikon's softness carrying the dish. Kyoto's branded kintoki carrot is sometimes added too, its vivid red lending color to the bowl.
How it's made
Peeled kashiraimo and daikon are boiled and cut into rounds or hexagons, and kintoki carrot, if used, is boiled the same way. The prepared vegetables go into the bowl along with softened round mochi, and dashi loosened with white miso is poured over everything just before serving. To avoid masking the white miso's flavor, the mochi is often boiled rather than grilled, it's said. It's made fresh in households every year, the method passed down generation to generation, it's said.
Why it took this shape
Each ingredient is said to carry its own wish: round mochi for harmony and long life, kashiraimo for descendants and success, and daikon for harmony when cut round or long life when cut hexagonally. White miso is said to have been made in Kyoto since the Heian period, prized by the aristocracy as a luxurious use of rice, which was precious at the time. This combination is thought to have taken hold as fitting fare for the special occasion of New Year's, made anew in each household and passed down through generations.
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 Kyoto
- Chirimen SanshoChirimen-jako simmered sweet-salty with fresh sansho peppercorns in sake, soy sauce, and mirin — a Kyoto side dish said to have begun as a cook's gift in the mid-Showa era. The peppercorns leave a sharp, fragrant aftertaste.
- Ebiimo to Bodara no TaitanEbi-imo, a striped Kyoto heirloom taro named for its shrimp-like ridges, simmers together with bodara, cod dried in Hokkaido. Gelatin from the dried cod is said to keep the taro from falling apart, while the taro's bitterness softens the cod — a textbook 'deaimon' pairing.
- Fushimi no SakeSake from Fushimi in Kyoto, a district fed by groundwater from the Momoyama plateau. Its water is said to be softer than Nada's, giving a round mouthfeel and gentle, full sweetness that overlaps with the profile recognized under the GI Kyoto geographical indication.
- GanmodokiTofu mixed with vegetables, rolled into balls, and fried. Known in Kyoto as hirousu or hiryōzu, thought to have taken this form through the vegetarian temple-cooking idea of a filling dish made without meat.
- Hamo no YakimonoPike conger, riddled with fine bones, is scored with the skilled honekiri cut and then grilled — teriyaki-glazed or salted — in Kyoto cuisine. Said to have taken root in landlocked Kyoto because the hardy fish could be carried in alive, it is also a festival food for Gion Matsuri, nicknamed the 'hamo festival.'
- Kamonasu DengakuKamonasu, a round Kyoto heirloom eggplant over 10cm across sometimes called the 'queen of eggplants,' is sliced and pan-fried in plenty of oil, then topped with a sweet miso reduced with sake and mirin. It is said to have long been grown on the alluvial fan of Kamigamo.