Hot pot & soups
Guzoni
Shimabara guzoni — a hearty New Year's mochi soup cooked and served in its own earthen pot
Round mochi, chicken, napa cabbage, root vegetables, and freeze-dried tofu are simmered together in broth in an earthenware pot and served straight from it — a hearty New Year's soup said to trace back to besieged rebels eating provisions and local produce during the Shimabara Rebellion.
- Origin: Nagasaki Shimabara
- About 920 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
A hearty New Year-style soup packed with round mochi, chicken, napa cabbage, carrot, burdock, dried shiitake and freeze-dried tofu, sometimes with grilled conger eel or rolled omelet. Served straight from the earthenware pot it's cooked in, it still steams at the table, carrying the gentle sweetness of root vegetables and rice cake. It's described as unusually filling for a New Year soup, drawing visitors to Shimabara for the dish alone, and the kelp-and-bonito broth is said to give it real depth once every ingredient is prepped.
How it's made
Kelp-and-bonito broth is simmered with chicken thigh, burdock, carrot, lotus root and shiitake. Once cooked through, fish cake, tube-shaped fish cake and rolled omelet go in, seasoned with soy sauce, mirin and sake, before napa cabbage and freeze-dried tofu join the pot. Mochi boiled separately and a handful of mizuna are added last for one more simmer. The mix of ingredients varies by household, and the mochi is typically simmered soft rather than grilled first. Bringing the whole pot to the table keeps it steaming hot until the last bite.
Why it took this shape
During the Shimabara Rebellion in the early Edo period, those holed up in the castle with Amakusa Shiro are said to have simmered rationed mochi together with whatever mountain and sea provisions were on hand, to keep up strength through a long siege. That wartime need to stretch scarce rations without waste is thought to be why the dish survives as a hearty soup still served in its cooking pot. Its place at New Year and festival tables today is said to reflect how emergency siege food turned, over time, into a dish for celebration.
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
Also from Nagasaki
- ArumadoA hard-boiled egg dyed pink is wrapped in fish paste and steamed into a kamaboko log that shows a pink-rimmed cross-section when cut — a Hirado specialty, with kin dishes called "arimado" in Sasebo and "ryugan" in Nagasaki.
- Goto UdonA hand-pulled noodle from Shinkamigoto, Nagasaki. Its technique is thought to trace back to envoys returning from Tang China, and the island's camellia oil is worked into the dough for a smooth, elastic bite.
- HanahajikiCucumber, carrot, deep-fried tofu, and shrimp are cut into strips and fanned out on a plate to be dipped in a hot mustard vinegar-miso — a dish from Isahaya said to be named for how the mustard "flicks the nose," traditionally served at Buddhist memorial services.
- HatoshiShrimp and squid paste sandwiched in bread and deep-fried, a Nagasaki specialty said to have arrived from China in the Meiji era, growing from a shippoku banquet course into a food loved across the city.
- HikadoFish or chicken and vegetables like daikon and carrot are diced fine and simmered, thickened at the end with grated sweet potato — said to originate in a meat stew eaten by Portuguese residents of Nagasaki, its name from the Portuguese word for "minced."
- HikitoshiChicken raised at home is butchered for this Iki hot pot, typically enriched with iki-doufu, a rich local tofu, and firm-boiled somen — said to have begun as a dish served to guests in the inner parlor, its name tracing to "hiki-toshi," leading a guest through.