Hot pot & soups
Tororo Jiru
Tororo jiru — grated mountain yam soup poured over barley rice
Grated wild mountain yam is thinned with dashi and miso, then poured over barley rice. A specialty of the old Tokaido post town of Marico, in present-day Shizuoka, it's said to appear in Jippensha Ikku's travel novel and a Basho haiku, once favored by travelers on the road.
- Origin: Shizuoka City, Shizuoka
- About 150 km southwest of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Tororo-jiru is made by grating jinenjo, a wild mountain yam, and thinning the paste with dashi, miso, and soy sauce before pouring it over barley rice. The yam, also called 'yama no imo,' grows to about 1.5 meters long and 3 centimeters across, and in Shizuoka it comes mainly from the central region, with some also harvested in the west and east. Once grated, it is worked further in a mortar and loosened gradually with dashi until it turns thick and strongly sticky.
How it's made
The yam is grated, then ground further in a mortar, and a mix of dashi, miso, and soy sauce is stirred in a little at a time to loosen it. The finished paste is poured over barley rice and topped with shredded nori. Some households add egg while grinding it in the mortar, or skip the miso and use only soy sauce to thin it, so the method varies from home to home.
Why it took this shape
Maruko was the twentieth post town on the old Tokaido road, and the dish is said to have been valued by travelers as a way to build stamina for the journey. It reportedly appears in Jippensha Ikku's novel 'Tokaidochu Hizakurige' and in a haiku by Matsuo Basho, suggesting it was well known to people passing through. The yam's sticky texture was also said to soothe tired legs, thought to be one reason it became a staple for travelers on the road.
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 Shizuoka
- BokumeshiSteamed eel and shaved burdock are simmered together and folded into freshly cooked rice. Its name is said to trace to oversized eels unfit for sale, used in staff meals at eel farms along the Oi River — a mixed rice dish of the region.
- Fuji KinkaBred by Shizuoka Prefecture by crossing its own Duroc line, Fujirock, with Jinhua, a rare breed from China's Zhejiang province — found only in Shizuoka. Said to combine Jinhua's tenderness with Fujirock's marbling.
- Fujieda Asa RamenA town that eats ramen at breakfast — often a hot bowl followed by a cold one.
- Fujinomiya YakisobaIt grew up as a postwar snack at Fujinomiya's candy shops and okonomiyaki stalls. Its identity rests on three local staples: chewy steamed noodles, pork-lard cracklings called nikukasu, and a sardine-powder topping called dashiko.
- GawaRaw bonito is minced and mixed into a chilled miso broth with cucumber, pickled plum, and shiso. Its name is said to come from the "gawa-gawa" sound of stirring miso into ice water aboard a fishing boat — originally a summer meal made at sea.