Hot pot & soups
Saba no Jau
Saba no jau — a mackerel and vegetable hot pot cooked fisherman-style
A fisherman's dish from the Tajima region: mackerel filleted with its head and bones simmered into stock, then the flesh cooked sukiyaki-style with napa cabbage, chrysanthemum greens, and grilled tofu. It is said to have been eaten in port towns like Toyooka's Takeno, where mackerel landings were plentiful, sometimes as breakfast after a morning at sea.
- Origin: Hyogo
- About 450 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Mackerel is simmered sukiyaki-style with scallion, napa cabbage, and grilled tofu in a hot pot. Popular as a fisherman's meal in the Tajima region, it carries the deep flavor of stock made from the mackerel's own head and bones.
How it's made
The mackerel is filleted, and the head and bones are grilled and used to make stock. Stock, the filleted mackerel, napa cabbage, chrysanthemum greens, and grilled tofu are combined in a large pot, stirred together quickly, and seasoned with soy sauce, sake, mirin, and sugar before being eaten heartily.
Why it took this shape
In the Take-no district of Toyooka, where small mackerel were often landed, the fish reportedly became the base of this dish, while in areas like Kami, fish considered unsellable, along with sailfin sandfish and other local catch, were said to be used instead. It is said to have been eaten in spring and autumn when mackerel was plentiful, and often served as breakfast to fishermen returning from a catch.
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
Also from Hyogo
- AkashiyakiOctopus folded into a batter of wheat flour, jin-ko starch, egg, and dashi, cooked and dipped in a warm broth — Akashi's own take on the round batter-and-octopus dish, distinguished from takoyaki by that broth in place of sauce.
- Ako saltA salt tied to Japan's earliest full-scale commercial saltfields, using the irihama tidal-field method perfected in the Edo period. Controlling seawater with channels and embankments let work continue regardless of the tide, and the method is said to have remained Japan's main salt-making approach for some 300 years.
- Awaji BeefPure Tajima-line cattle raised on Awaji Island, a brand producers founded in 1986 — selected for balance between lean and fat rather than marbling volume, with a small annual output.
- Banshu RamenA distinctly sweet soy broth, said to have taken root among the town's textile-mill workers.
- Banshu Tenobe SomenA document held at Ikaruga-ji temple in Taishi records the word 'saumen' in an entry dated 1418, the oldest known reference to somen in Hyogo. In the Edo period the Ryuno domain formally licensed and encouraged the trade, built on locally grown wheat, the clear Ibo River, and salt from Ako.
- Botan NabeA Tanba-Sasayama hot pot of wild boar and seasonal vegetables simmered in a broth of white and red miso, often finished with a dusting of ground Japanese pepper. Some restaurants are said to arrange the sliced boar meat like the petals of a peony.