Hot pot & soups ── Nabe (hot pot)
Chanko Nabe
Chanko Nabe — the sumo stable's communal hot pot
Chicken, napa cabbage, tofu, and more simmer together in broth — a hot pot born in sumo stables, said to date to the Meiji era, when four-legged meat like beef and pork was avoided since touching a hand to the ground echoed a loss in the ring. Former wrestlers still run chanko restaurants around Ryogoku, keeping their stable's flavor.
- Origin: Tokyo Sumida
- Soy-based & yosenabe
Lineage
What it's made of
Chicken, napa cabbage, carrot, green onion, tofu, and many other ingredients are simmered together in dashi in this nutrient-rich hotpot. The broth drawn from a wide range of ingredients soaks through everything, making for a dish that is simple yet deeply savory. Originally a dish meant to build sumo wrestlers' bodies, it is also said to be notable for how much can be made at once, and today it is said to be made casually in ordinary households as well.
How it's made
Chicken along with vegetables such as napa cabbage, carrot, and green onion, plus fried tofu and tofu, are combined and simmered in a broth of dashi or chicken bones. Seasoning varies to taste, with soy sauce or miso among the common choices. Cutting the ingredients into large pieces and simmering them slowly is said to let the broth soak in well for a hearty, satisfying bowl, often finished with rice porridge or noodles at the end.
Why it took this shape
Because touching the ground with one's hands evokes a loss in the ring, four-legged meats such as beef and pork are said to have been avoided, with chicken chosen instead as an auspicious ingredient — a custom said to have taken root that way. The need to build the bodies of many wrestlers efficiently is said to have given rise to the practice of simmering a wide range of ingredients together in one pot, long cherished by wrestlers after grueling practice sessions.
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
- Damako NabeFreshly cooked rice, lightly pounded with a pestle and rolled into balls called 'damako', simmers in hinai-jidori chicken broth with burdock and Japanese parsley — said to have taken shape once fish from Lake Hachirogata grew scarce and chicken took their place.
- Hamo-sukiA hot pot of bone-cut conger pike eel and Awaji Island onion simmered together in a seasoned broth. Eel from the muddy waters near Numashima is said to have thin, tender skin, and the dish is eaten from early summer through autumn as the fish takes on fat and pairs with the onion's sweetness.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Tokyo
- Abura SobaNo broth is poured at all — noodles are tossed in a soy-and-sesame-oil tare pooled at the bottom of the bowl, said to have started at shops in the Musashino area in the late 1950s, with vinegar and chili oil stirred in partway through.
- Ajitsuke NoriSheet nori brushed with a soy-and-sugar seasoning and toasted crisp, said to have been devised as a gift for an imperial visit to Kyoto in the Meiji era. Its snap gives way to a burst of flavor and aroma.
- Anago ZushiConger eel, simmered sweet and savory, is laid over sushi rice and brushed with a reduced glaze called tsume — a staple Edomae topping from a fish that thrived in Tokyo Bay's nutrient-rich waters, its slick skin demanding a sushi chef's careful hand to clean.
- AnmitsuCubes of agar jelly topped with red peas, sweet bean paste, and dark syrup. Said to have begun when a Ginza sweets shop in the early Showa era added its own bean paste to the simpler "mitsumame" — jelly and peas in syrup — marking a point where wagashi met café culture.
- Asakusa shichimiA seven-spice chili blend from a shop tracing back to 1625 in Asakusa's old Yagenbori district, often described as the origin point of shichimi togarashi. The neighborhood's history as a hub for medicinal-herb wholesalers is credited with shaping a blend informed by traditional Chinese medicine, and the shop is known for custom-mixing blends to order.
- Bettara-zukeDaikon salted first, then pickled sweet in rice malt and sugar — said to descend from a lightly pickled daikon once sold at Edo's ebisu-kō market. The rice malt gives it a natural sweetness, and it still headlines Nihonbashi's autumn "Bettara Market."