Hot pot & soups
Sanma no Surimi Jiru
Sanma surimi jiru — a soup of hand-ground Pacific saury fish balls
Ground Pacific saury, worked in a mortar with miso and egg, is shaped into balls and simmered with daikon, scallion and tofu — a Sanriku coast staple that took hold about 60 years ago as saury catches grew, in a region that leads Honshu in landings.
- Origin: Iwate Ofunato
- About 410 km northeast of Tokyo
What it's made of
A Sanriku coastal soup made by grinding fresh saury into dumplings and simmering them with daikon, carrot, tofu and scallion. The seasoning worked into the ground fish and the saury's own savoriness dissolve into the broth for a straightforward flavor; grinding the saury thoroughly in a mortar is said to be the key to a light, tasty dumpling. Both miso and soy-based versions exist.
How it's made
Ground saury is worked further in a mortar and seasoned with miso, egg, salt, soy sauce and sake. The seasoned fish is shaped into dumplings and simmered in boiling broth, then daikon, carrot, scallion and tofu are added and cooked until tender, it is said. Pre-ground saury is sold at fish shops and supermarkets, making this an easy household dish to prepare.
Why it took this shape
Iwate is said to rank among the top prefectures on Honshu for saury landings. Ground fish soup was once made with sardine, with saury reserved for salt-grilling or salt-simmering, but as saury catches rose roughly sixty years ago, it is said to have come into use for ground-fish soup as well, and it is thought to have taken hold across the Sanriku coast as the standard household dish whenever saury comes into season.
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 Iwate
- Azuki BattoRested wheat dough cut into wide noodle strips is served in a sugar-sweetened red-bean broth — made along the Sanriku coast for building-raising and harvest celebrations, with a custom of eating it seven times on the seventh day of Obon for good health.
- Hecchoko DangoDumplings of millet and sorghum flour, each dimpled in the center, are simmered in a sweet red-bean soup — also called "ukiuki dango," a harvest-close treat from rice-poor northern Iwate where they float to the surface as they cook.
- Hina ManjuRice-flour dough tinted with food coloring is wrapped around red-bean paste and shaped into flowers, peaches or rabbits using wooden molds — tied to a doll-viewing custom in Hanamaki's Ohasama area, offered alongside kirisensho at the Girls' Festival.
- Hizu NamasuThin slices of cartilage from a salmon's head — "hizu" — are salted, cured in vinegar and tossed with daikon and carrot namasu — a rare delicacy from just one small part of the fish, a New Year dish where salmon run up Miyako Bay.
- Dento Mochi RyoriAn umbrella term for some 300 ways of dressing mochi — sweet red bean, edamame paste, walnut, natto, zoni and more. A domain-era custom of pounding mochi twice a month left Ichinoseki with a "mochi calendar" of 60-plus occasions a year and a formal ceremonial mochi course still observed today.
- Imo no Ko JiruAutumn taro is simmered with chicken, tofu, daikon and carrot in a soy broth — a fall favorite of the taro-growing Kitakami river valley, still enjoyed at riverside "imoni-kai" gatherings around Kitakami's Futako district.