Hot pot & soups
Miyazaki Hiyajiru
Miyazaki hiyajiru — grilled fish and miso ground together, chilled, and poured over barley rice
Grilled fish is ground together with miso, toasted fragrant over charcoal, then thinned with dashi and chilled — an instant Miyazaki soup said to have spread as a quick way to eat well during heavy summer farm work, poured over barley rice and topped with sliced cucumber.
- Origin: Miyazaki
- About 880 km southwest of Tokyo
What it's made of
Hiyajiru, from central Miyazaki, is a cold soup of grilled, mashed miso mixed into dashi and poured over hot barley rice. In its richer version, grilled and flaked sea bream or horse mackerel is worked into the miso, though dried sardine sometimes stands in. Sliced cucumber, shiso, and myoga are added on top, playing the cold soup against the hot rice.
How it's made
Sea bream or horse mackerel is grilled plain and flaked, the bones carefully removed. White sesame is ground in a mortar, mixed with the flaked fish and miso, and the paste is spread inside the mortar, then held upside down over charcoal embers until its surface is lightly charred. The toasted miso is thinned with dashi into a soup thicker than ordinary miso soup, then chilled. Sliced cucumber is added on top, and the cold soup is poured over hot barley rice to finish.
Why it took this shape
In Miyazaki's hot, humid climate, this dish is said to have started with farmers topping barley rice with raw miso and water during breaks from heavy summer labor. In the mountainous parts of Miyazaki, rice was reportedly a precious commodity under the old domain system, with barley rice serving as the everyday staple. As a way to get quick nutrition and recover strength even without much time or appetite, it's said to have become an essential dish supporting farmers through the summer harvest.
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
Contrast
- Zabu-jiruCarrot, burdock, potato, daikon, and pumpkin are stir-fried, then simmered in a dashi of dried sardine and kelp — a Tsuno town soup named for the zabu-zabu sound of vegetables boiling away, built from whatever root vegetables are on hand, an everyday dish in Miyazaki homes.
- Su no ShuiGrated daikon and sardine are simmered together in a broth of vinegar and soy sauce — a warm winter soup from western Miyazaki, its name using the local dialect word for broth, traditionally served alongside mochi-pounding and built on a daikon variety native to Miyakonojo.
Also from Miyazaki
- Chikin NanbanFried chicken dipped in sweet vinegar and topped with tartar sauce, said to have originated in Nobeoka, Miyazaki. It's said to trace to a sweet-vinegar fried chicken devised as staff food at a Western-food restaurant in the 1950s.
- Futatabi DangoDumpling flour is kneaded, steamed with freshly picked mugwort folded in, then pounded a second time — a Nobeoka treat named for that unusual second working of the dough, wrapped around sweet bean paste and dusted with soybean flour into a soft, pale-green dumpling.
- Hie-zushiWild boar bones are simmered into a broth, then rice, millet, and vegetables are added and cooked down into a porridge — a Shiiba village dish built on millet, a grain said to have been eaten in Japan since before rice farming; whenever a boar was dressed, the porridge it made was shared around the whole village to see out the long winter.
- Hyuga Kurokawa Kabocha no NimonoHyuga kurokawa kabocha, a black-skinned heirloom pumpkin first grown in Miyazaki City, is cut into large chunks and simmered slowly in sugar and light soy sauce — lighter and less sweet than a Western pumpkin, but it holds its shape well and its skin is good to eat too.
- Iriko MochiGlutinous rice is parched and ground into iriko flour, then kneaded with starch syrup, rested, and cut into bars — a Miyazaki sweet said to have arrived from the Satsuma domain as a festival treat, once handed out to neighbors to wish for a child's healthy growth.
- Jidori no Miso KorobakashiJidori chicken is rolled around a dry pan with no added water, coaxed with a miso glaze without letting it catch — a home-cooked dish from around Kobayashi City, its name a western-Miyazaki dialect word for tumbling food in a pot as it cooks, the mix of vegetables and seasoning varying from house to house.