Hot pot & soups
Yugao no Miso Shiru
Yugao no miso shiru — bottle-gourd miso soup, a Fuji foothill summer staple
The long, gourd-shaped 'naga-yugao', a bottle gourd variety distinct from the one used for kanpyo strips, is thinly sliced into a sardine-stock miso soup — a summer dish from the Fuji foothills, its mild flavor and silky texture said to be well liked.
- Origin: Yamanashi
- About 90 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
The long, gourd-shaped naga-yugao squash is sliced thin and simmered into a soup of dried-sardine dashi and miso. Though mild in flavor, simmering is said to give it a distinctively silky texture. Similar in character to winter melon, it's said to have a lighter feel and to slip down the throat more easily.
How it's made
Dashi is drawn from dried sardines, and yugao squash, sliced thin or cubed, is added to simmer. Once it comes to a boil, miso is stirred in and the heat turned off, people say. Fried tofu or potato are sometimes added alongside it, it's said. Because overcooking breaks down its texture, getting the timing right is said to matter.
Why it took this shape
The yugao grown in this region is a different, longer variety from the one used to make kanpyo gourd strips, and it's said to have long been valued for its diuretic properties, eaten as something gentle on the body. Cultivation is said to date to the Taisho era, later expanding as growers began selling to markets. The habit of turning a vegetable easy on the stomach into a soup for the hot months seems to have settled in as a summer staple.
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 Yamanashi
- Akebono Daizu no EdamameThe 'akebono' soybean, said to be 1.6 times the size of an ordinary bean, is picked young and salt-boiled — an edamame from the Akebono area of Minobu town. Grown since the Meiji era but resistant to mechanization, aging growers have made it scarce enough to be called a 'phantom bean'.
- Amanatto no OsekihanMade without azuki or cowpea beans, glutinous rice is dyed red with food coloring and mixed with candied sweet beans — a Yamanashi take on celebratory red rice, sweet-salty with a sprinkle of sesame salt. A similarly sweet red rice is said to exist far away in Hokkaido and parts of Tohoku.
- AnbinSweet potato and wheat flour are kneaded with hot water, wrapped around bean paste, slapped flat, and steamed — a sweet from the Kyonan region. Its name is said to come from the slapping motion, revived in Ichikawamisato town's Rokugo area after a local school's closure sparked a heritage-food effort.
- Awabi no NigaiAbalone from Suruga Bay was soy-sauce-marinated and hauled in barrels by horse, the jostling and body heat said to have worked the flavor deep in — a specialty from landlocked Kofu. Sliced thin and paired with its liver, shiso, and cucumber, it endures as a taste of the sea inland.
- Azuki HotoHoto noodles, cut thicker than usual, are simmered in sweet azuki bean soup in place of mochi — a festival food in Yamanashi. The summer festival at Miwa Shrine in Hokuto city's Wakamiko area is nicknamed the 'hoto festival', and azuki's red color is said to ward off misfortune.
- Hirauchi TanmenA salt-based tanmen from Kofu, Yamanashi, built on wide, flat noodles said to feel almost like fettuccine. Bean sprouts, pork, and napa cabbage pile on top for a vegetable-heavy bowl carried on today by several shops around the prefecture.