Hot pot & soups
Kyuri no Hiyajiru
Kyuri no hiyajiru — a cold sesame-miso soup with cucumber
Ground sesame and miso are worked together, mixed with sliced cucumber, and thinned with chilled dashi, a summer soup from the Iga basin's sweltering heat. It has long been eaten as a way to keep up one's appetite through the hottest months.
- Origin: Mie
- About 350 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Kyuri no hiyajiru is a cold soup made by grinding roasted sesame and miso together in a mortar, mixing in sliced cucumber, and thinning it with chilled dashi. It's said to have grown out of a way to get through the muggy summer heat particular to the Iga basin. Unlike the cold soups of places such as Miyazaki, it isn't typically poured over rice in Mie but drunk more as a soup on its own, its toasted sesame and rich miso offering a sense of coolness.
How it's made
Roasted sesame is ground thoroughly in a mortar, then miso is worked in. Sliced cucumber is mixed in, and once it's softened slightly, chilled dashi is poured in. Chopped scallion is sometimes scattered on top. Because the method is so simple, the balance of miso and the way the dashi is made vary slightly from household to household.
Why it took this shape
The Iga area's basin brings especially muggy heat in summer, which is said to dull the appetite, and the wisdom of cooling off with a cold miso soup is thought to have taken root there. Similar regional cold soups exist across Japan, and Miyazaki's version is said to have been spread nationwide by Buddhist monks, but in Mie the dish is thought to have settled into its own form as a cold soup drunk on its own, rather than poured over rice as a rule.
Before you go
- Foods to look for in summerA guide to foods often seen in Japan around summer — eel on the Day of the Ox, hiyashi chuka, somen, shaved ice, edamame with beer, and hamo — with rough pointers for finding them.
- 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.
- At yakiniku, shabu-shabu, and hot potGrilling your own meat at yakiniku, swishing thin slices at shabu-shabu, and sharing from the pot — the customs behind each.
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 Mie
- AhodakiOld takuan pickle, once its flavor and aroma have faded, is desalted and simmered again in soy sauce, a pantry staple from the Hokusei area. Its name — playfully self-deprecating, roughly "doing a foolish thing" — nods to eating it well past its prime, a frugal way to waste nothing.
- Arame MakiRehydrated arame, a brown seaweed once offered to Ise Shrine, is wrapped several times around sardine or saury and simmered in soy sauce and sugar. The choice of fish shifts by locality along the Toba coast.
- Bon JiruA miso soup packed with seasonal vegetables such as burdock, eggplant, and pumpkin. Following Zen Buddhist practice of avoiding killing during Obon, it skips bonito or dried-fish stock, relying instead on fried tofu and a generous mix of vegetables for its savor.
- ChagayuRice is cooked in water steeped with a bag of roasted tea leaves. Born in Iga, where farmland was scarce and rice precious, the extra water was a way to stretch the grain further; in summer some households chill the porridge before eating.
- ChatsuJulienned daikon, carrot, lotus root, kelp, and fried tofu are simmered in vinegar and sugar, a dish from Asahi town. Its name is said to come from "chatsu," the red-lacquered vessel once used to serve vegetarian temple food, and soy sauce is deliberately left out to keep the dish pale.
- Fuki DawaraRice cooked with soybeans is wrapped in butterbur leaves into a small rice-bale shape, an Iga-area harvest offering. It is set before the rice-paddy deity at planting time to pray for a good crop, and doubles as a portable snack for breaks between farm work.