Hot pot & soups
Noppei
Noppei — a thick root-vegetable stew that settles into a simmered dish
Taro is always among the vegetables, simmered with carrot, daikon, and konjac without pan-frying first, a winter dish from landlocked Iga. Without easy access to seafood, processed goods like fish cake and kamaboko were treasured additions.
- Origin: Mie
- About 350 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Noppei is a thick, starchy soup of taro, carrot, daikon, konnyaku, fried tofu, and fish cake simmered together with root vegetables and dried goods. The starch from the taro keeps it from cooling quickly, making it a winter staple for warming the body. Its light seasoning and clear broth are said to reflect the influence of Kyoto cuisine; a big batch is made at once, eaten first as a soup, and as it's reheated day after day it reduces down into something closer to a simmered dish.
How it's made
The root vegetables and dried ingredients are each prepped and cut to a similar size, then simmered slowly in the pot. Nothing is sautéed in oil first, and starch released from the taro is what thickens the broth. It's seasoned and colored lightly, then ladled out one bowl at a time. A large batch is made and reheated daily, gradually reducing until, by the end, it resembles an ordinary simmered dish more than a soup.
Why it took this shape
The Iga area is the only part of Mie not facing the sea, so fish dishes were scarce, and processed soybean foods along with fish-paste products like chikuwa and kamaboko are said to have been treated as luxuries. The dish tends to be eaten in winter, timed to the taro harvest, and is said to have been made for festivals, celebrations, and the meal that follows a memorial service. A soup by a similar name reportedly appears in an early Edo-period cookbook, and the name fu no noppei is said to survive in the menu of a moon-viewing gathering hosted by the poet Matsuo Basho.
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
Contrast
- 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.
- NoppeiWinter root vegetables such as taro, burdock, and lotus root are simmered with chicken in dashi, then lightly thickened with cornstarch—a dish from the castle town of Hagi. For Buddhist memorial meals the chicken is left out and ginkgo nuts added instead, a vegetarian custom still observed.
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.
- 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.