Hot pot & soups
Ushi Jiru
Ushi jiru — a rare beef soup in pork country, paired with island carrot
A rare beef dish in pork-centered Okinawa, paired with chidee-kuni, an island carrot that comes into season in winter. Eaten as a guard against colds and for general vigor, it also appears as an offering in local traditions such as Nago's Ushi-nuganu rite.
- Origin: Okinawa Nago
- About 1510 km southwest of Tokyo
What it's made of
Beef is simmered with a slender yellow carrot called chidekuni into this restorative soup. Shaped like burdock root and notably tender, chidekuni pairs with the beef's own savoriness for a warming dish said to help ward off winter colds. In a prefecture whose food culture leans so heavily on pork, this beef dish is something of a rarity, and it is offered as part of a traditional rite called ushi ugan in Nago's Awa district.
How it's made
Beef is sliced thin, and chidekuni is cut to a matching size. Kelp is rinsed, rehydrated, and cut into 3-centimeter pieces. The beef is stir-fried in oil, the carrot is added and stir-fried further, and bonito stock with the kelp goes in for about 20 minutes of simmering. Once skimmed of scum, the soup is seasoned with salt and soy sauce and finished with grated ginger.
Why it took this shape
In a prefecture whose food culture leans heavily on pork, beef dishes are relatively rare, a scarcity said to trace back to the Ryukyu court era, when cattle, valued for farm labor, were banned from slaughter. The soup is made through the winter months from around November, when chidekuni comes into season, typically seasoned with salt and soy sauce, though on Miyako Island a miso-based version is the local variation. A heartier version adds organ meat alongside the beef.
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 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.