Hot pot & soups
Teppo Jiru
Teppo jiru — crab miso soup
Crab simmers in kelp dashi, finished with miso, tofu, and scallion — a Nemuro fishing dish said to be named for the way diners pick at crab legs with chopsticks, resembling the motion of loading a gun.
- Origin: Hokkaido
- About 990 km northeast of Tokyo
What it's made of
Crab simmers slowly in a kelp broth seasoned with miso, with tofu and green onion added at the end. It's especially known for using hanasaki crab, caught off the Nemuro region — a scarce crab taken only by trap fishing in a short season running from mid-July to late September, dark brown while alive but said to turn a vivid vermilion once boiled. The broth carries the crab's own savor through the whole bowl — a soup that lets the ingredient do the work.
How it's made
Crab and whatever vegetables are on hand simmer slowly in a kelp broth, seasoned with miso, with tofu and green onion stirred in at the end. Besides hanasaki crab, other Hokkaido crabs — snow crab, red king crab, horsehair crab — are sometimes used instead. Some households skip the vegetables entirely, wanting nothing but the crab's own broth and savor — a home-style dish said to be prized for pairing that ease with real depth of flavor.
Why it took this shape
It's said to have been eaten as a fisherman's dish in the Nemuro region. The name is said to come from the way chopsticks poke at a crab leg to pull out the meat, a motion likened to loading a musket. Hanasaki crab is caught only in the waters off the Nemuro Peninsula, a scarce catch further limited by size selection to protect the resource. A rare ingredient, bound to one small fishing ground and one short season, carried down as a soup that still bears the region's own name.
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 Hokkaido
- Asahikawa RamenSoy-sauce broth built on seafood and pork bones, topped with lard so it stays hot. A response to the region's severe winters.
- Asahikawa HorumenA local dish that crosses Asahikawa's two soul foods — soy-sauce ramen and grilled pork offal. Pork offal, cleaned and prepped to remove its odor, sits on a soy-based broth. It was devised in Asahikawa in the 2010s.
- Gatatan RamenAshibetsu's local dish gatatan, turned into ramen: a salt broth thickened with potato starch, loaded with vegetables, meat and seafood, and finished with a stream of beaten egg.
- Bibai no TorimeshiChicken and onion are cooked into rice with soy sauce, sugar, and sake — said to trace back to a Meiji-era landowner in Bibai's Nakamura district who had tenant farmers raise chickens, then served them to guests.
- Bibai YakitoriOne skewer carries the whole bird — offal, skin and all.
- Biratori WagyuJapanese Black raised in Biratori, Hidaka, founded on breeding cattle brought from Shimane in 1962 — finished slowly through harsh winters, said to give the meat a notably deep flavor.