Hot pot & soups
Mizuika no Mada Jiru
Mizuika no mada jiru — miso soup thickened black with squid ink and its liver sac
A miso soup from Amami where bigfin reef squid meat and its ink sac are stirred straight into the broth. The ink lends a mellow sweetness and depth, and the sac itself has long been bought as a remedy said to ease flushing and high blood pressure.
- Origin: Kagoshima
- About 1260 km southwest of Tokyo
What it's made of
This miso soup brings together water squid (also called bigfin reef squid) caught around Amami, its own ink, and pork belly. The ink dissolves into the broth to give it a rounded richness and mellow sweetness, and a scattering of leafy greens like handama at the end brings out the squid's briny scent alongside the miso's flavor. The squid's own translucent body is said to give the broth a particularly clean, clear sweetness.
How it's made
Stock is drawn from bonito flakes, pork belly is added, and miso is stirred in. Squid, cleaned and cut into bite-sized pieces, goes into the broth, and finally the ink is squeezed from its sac and stirred through. Because squid meat toughens quickly with overcooking, the dish is said to come together best when made briskly, and the broth's thickness and choice of extra ingredients vary from household to household.
Why it took this shape
The waters of the Nansei island chain are a prime fishing ground for this squid, and a jigging technique called eging, reportedly born on Amami Oshima itself, has long kept squid fishing active through the year. The ink, known locally as mada, was regarded as a remedy thought to ease flushing and lower blood pressure and was treated almost as medicine, and turning it into a bowl of miso soup is said to be a way of eating distinctive to the Amami islands.
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.
- 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
- KibinagoA small fish with a silver band down its flank, famously hand-filleted and fanned into a chrysanthemum-shaped sashimi platter. It spoils fast, so a culture of eating it the moment it's landed from clear island waters took hold.
- Ika Sumi JiruBigfin reef squid meat and ink are simmered with lean pork and bitter greens into a soup black enough to stain the mouth. The ink's own sweetness and depth meet the greens' bitterness in a flavor Okinawans call ajikuutaa, and it's long been valued as a restorative food.
Also from Kagoshima
- Abura ZomenPork and somen are fried together with a splash of broth, the oil and stock emulsifying into a silky coat on the noodles. Just how somen took root in wheat-free Amami isn't clear, but the dish is a fixture whenever people gather, not least for the August Dance festival.
- AkumakiMochi rice steeped in wood-ash lye is wrapped in bamboo sheath and boiled for hours in more lye water — a Boys' Festival sweet said to have fed Saigo Takamori's troops in the field. The lye's alkalinity holds bacteria back, letting it keep for days in Kagoshima's heat and humidity.
- Amami Kokuto-jochuKokuto-jochu permitted to be made only in the Amami Islands of Kagoshima Prefecture. It's said to carry a sweet aroma distinctive to islands where sugarcane cultivation thrives, and around 30 breweries are said to compete on character while observing the liquor tax law's condition that rice koji be used.
- Buta Hone YasaiBone-in pork cut into big chunks is simmered in a large pot with tsuwabuki, daikon, and koshaman taro — an Amami dish essential to New Year's Eve, also called wanfineyasse. It's regarded as a wisdom born of using every part of the island's own black pigs.
- Buta JiruPork simmered with daikon, taro, and other roots in a miso broth, built on Kagoshima's own pork — the prefecture raises more hogs than any other — paired with a barley miso high in koji and correspondingly sweet. A warming bowl for winter, common at home and in school lunches alike.
- Buta MisoBoiled pork is pounded together with miso and sugar into a keeping paste, with peanuts and bonito flakes added in Amami versions. It's said to have grown out of the need to use every part of the one pig a household slaughtered each year, alongside salting and other preserved forms.