Hot pot & soups
Sooki Jiru
Sooki jiru — pork ribs simmered to the bone in a plain clear broth
Pork ribs are simmered slow until the meat falls from the bone, then savored plain in a clear broth. Soki soba, the noodle version, is the one known outside Okinawa, but within the prefecture this unadorned soup is the more everyday, homier form.
- Origin: Okinawa
- About 1560 km southwest of Tokyo
What it's made of
Bone-in pork ribs are simmered until tender into this clear soup, also called sooki bone no oshiru. Cooked long enough that the meat pulls easily from the bone, the dish lets the rib's own balance of fat and meat, and its aroma, come through directly. Daikon often goes in during winter, winter melon in summer, and within Okinawa this clear soup is said to be more popular even than sooki soba, the noodle dish topped with the same simmered ribs.
How it's made
The bone-in ribs are rinsed in hot water, brought to a boil from cold water, and carefully skimmed of scum. Knotted kelp and rehydrated dried shiitake are added, and the soup simmers gently over low heat for about ninety minutes until the meat is tender, then it's seasoned with salt or soy sauce into a clear broth. Adding the liquid used to soak the kelp and shiitake is said to deepen the flavor further.
Why it took this shape
Households once butchered a pig at year's end and marked the New Year with a spread of pork dishes built around this soup. Amid otherwise modest daily life, preparing pork for a festive occasion and offering it before the family altar before the meal itself is said to be the custom that carried this bowl into its place as a fixture of the New Year table, one so central that the holiday is sometimes nicknamed pork New Year.
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.
- What to know if you have dietary restrictionsHow allergen labeling works, where fish-based dashi, pork, and alcohol turn up, and phrases for checking with staff.
- 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 Okinawa
- Ashi TibichiPig's trotters are simmered for hours with kelp and daikon until the bone slides free on its own. Rooted in the belief that eating a body part heals the same part in the eater, it's traditionally favored by older people, anyone with trouble in the legs, or those minding their skin.
- AwamoriA distilled spirit from Okinawa made only from Thai rice and black koji, with every grain of rice turned into koji in a method called zen-koji-jikomi. Citric acid from the black koji is said to keep the mash from spoiling even in hot, humid conditions, and it's classified alongside shochu as a single-distillation spirit.
- Chii IrichiiPork blood is worked with pork meat, carrot, and wood-ear mushroom into a distinctive stir-simmered dish. Rooted in the same eat-what-ails-you logic as ashi tibichi, it was thought to guard against anemia, and it's traditionally offered before Lunar New Year and at memorial services.
- Chimu ShinjiPork liver and a native yellow carrot are simmered down almost like a medicinal decoction, meant for days the body needs support. It follows the kusuimun idea that food itself can be medicine, and is traditionally made for anemia or when someone's caught a cold.
- Gooyaa ChanpuruuBitter goya is stir-fried together with Okinawa's firm tofu and egg. A dish only earns the name champuru once tofu is in it, and this one has long served double duty — coaxing back a summer-flagged appetite while delivering vitamin C, now eaten year-round.
- HanazakeA distilled spirit made only on Yonaguni, Japan's westernmost island, at around 60 percent alcohol. Its raw materials and method are the same as awamori, but because its proof exceeds awamori's legal ceiling, it's classified as 'spirits' rather than awamori under the liquor tax law.