Hot pot & soups ── Nabe (hot pot)
Beka Nabe
Bekanabe — herring pickled in rice bran, simmered in a hot pot
Sardines pickled in rice bran are simmered with napa cabbage, mushrooms, and sake lees in this Noto winter hot pot, said to descend from a preservation method from before refrigeration — its name reputedly a nod to how commonly the cheap fish was eaten.
- Origin: Ishikawa
- Miso-based
- About 290 km northwest of Tokyo
What it's made of
A hot pot of rice-bran-pickled sardines simmered with napa cabbage, mushrooms, and sake lees. The sardines flake apart soft and tender with a pair of chopsticks, their distinctive bran fragrance and saltiness meeting the vegetables' sweetness. The sake lees round out the broth with a mellow richness, said to warm the body through — a dish long familiar on winter tables.
How it's made
Daikon and carrot are cut into easy pieces and simmered in a broth made with the pickled sardines and sake lees. Once the ingredients are cooked through, the sardines are flaked apart with chopsticks and the bones removed before eating. Grilling the sardines first is said to bring out a fragrant, less fishy sweetness in both the bran and the fish; some households add greens or chili as well.
Why it took this shape
Without refrigeration, pickling abundant sardines in rice bran is said to have developed as a preservation technique and to have long sustained mountain villages through winters when food ran short. The way this common fish was woven so casually into everyday conversation is said to be reflected even in the dish's name, and it is said to have long served as a source of nourishment through the cold season.
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
- Ankou-nabeMonkfish meat, skin, liver, and stomach simmered with vegetables, a winter pot of northern Ibaraki. It is described as a more approachable version of dobujiru, which fishermen ate aboard their boats, and comes in miso and soy-sauce versions.
- Botan NabeA Tanba-Sasayama hot pot of wild boar and seasonal vegetables simmered in a broth of white and red miso, often finished with a dusting of ground Japanese pepper. Some restaurants are said to arrange the sliced boar meat like the petals of a peony.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Ishikawa
- AimazeRoot vegetables from Noto's reddish soil are cut into thin strips and simmered with fried tofu — traditionally made ahead for New Year and other special days, with the choice of vegetables shifting from village to village.
- Daikon-zushiA fermented sushi from the Kaga region layering daikon radish with dried herring in rice koji. Said to have taken root once herring carried by the Kitamae trading ships reached ordinary tables, it now sits alongside kaburazushi as a New Year staple.
- EbisuMelted agar is mixed with beaten egg, sugar, and soy sauce, then set — said to trace back to an egg-and-agar dish recorded in an Edo-period cookbook, nicknamed "berobero" for its glossy, slippery look, and served on festive occasions.
- Goshiki NamagashiFive kinds of mochi and buns, each representing sun, moon, mountain, sea, and village, are arranged in a lidded box — a Kanazawa wedding confection said to trace back to a gift prepared for a Kaga domain bride, still handed out as a return gift at celebrations.
- UFO RamenA bowl from Hakui, Ishikawa, a town known for its UFO-sighting lore, served under the local Hakui UFO Gourmet banner. Sushi shops and Western-style diners alike top a soy-based broth with saucer-shaped garnishes, each putting its own spin on the town's story.
- HasumushiGrated Kaga lotus root is mixed with white fish or shrimp and steamed — the root's high starch content is said to bind the mixture without egg or starch, giving a mochi-like chew finished with a glossy sauce.