Hot pot & soups ── Nabe (hot pot)
Damako Nabe
Damako nabe — pounded rice dumpling hot pot
Freshly 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.
- Origin: Akita
- Soy-based & yosenabe
- About 480 km north of Tokyo
What it's made of
A winter hot pot from Akita: dumplings called "damako," made from pounded rice balled by hand, simmered in Hinai jidori chicken broth with green onion, mitsuba, and maitake mushroom. In the clear chicken broth, the damako turn glossy on the outside while staying chewy within, it is said. Damako soaked in the chicken's savor, meeting fragrant mitsuba and mushrooms, make for a warming winter dish.
How it's made
Rice cooked slightly firm is pounded with a pestle until it turns sticky, then rolled by hand into balls while still hot. Hinai jidori chicken broth is seasoned with soy sauce or miso, and the dumplings are simmered in it together with chicken, green onion, mitsuba, maitake, and burdock. Some regions lightly salt the dumplings before rolling or grill them briefly on a rack first, a difference said to vary by area.
Why it took this shape
The dish is said to have originated in the Nanshu area around Lake Hachiro, originally made with fish from the lake—smelt, crucian carp—grilled and set in a miso broth. As land reclamation reduced the catch and fish grew harder to come by, chicken bones and meat are said to have taken their place, and the area's standing as a Hinai jidori producing region is thought to have shaped the dish into its present form.
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
- Chanko NabeChicken, 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.
- 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
Contrast
- Kiritanpo NabeSlightly firm rice is pressed onto a stick and grilled into 'tanpo', then cut to size and simmered in hinai-jidori chicken broth with burdock and parsley — said to have begun as a way charcoal makers used up leftover rice while holed up in the mountains.
- Junsai NabeThe jelly-coated young shoots of junsai, a water shield that grows in ponds, simmer with chicken, burdock, and Japanese parsley — prized for a smooth, slippery bite, and said to be hand-picked from small boats each summer in Mitane, one of Japan's leading junsai-growing towns.
Also from Akita
- Akazushi (Akazuke)Cooked glutinous rice cured briefly in red shiso and vinegar — an Akita sushi with no fish in it at all, a plant-based cousin of narezushi also offered at Obon altars.
- AsazukeBroken rice grains are pureed, simmered, and seasoned sweet-and-sour with sugar and vinegar, then mixed with cucumber, turnip, and seasonal fruit — a summer dessert unrelated to the pickle of the same name, said to refresh women after a day planting rice.
- Edokei RamenA soy ramen topped with a knob of bright red chili miso built on garlic and garlic chives. Stirred in gradually as you eat, it turns a mild bowl steadily richer and spicier — a specialty of Akita City.
- Akita HoshimochiSliced mochi is strung up, soaked in water, then left to freeze and thaw through the winter cold in a process called 'kanjime' — the result crisp and filling, said to have fueled breaks during rice-planting season.
- Imonoko JiruBaby taro corms called 'imonoko' simmer with chicken, mushrooms, and wild greens in miso or soy — an autumn soup said to use taro grown in Yokote's Sannai district, prized for its soft bite, and set alongside kiritanpo nabe as the region's autumn counterpart.
- Akita no SakeAkita sake, brewed with soft water in deliberate contrast to Nada's hard water, aiming for a mellow, delicate character. Breweries buried in snow are said to gain a natural insulating effect from it, a tradition of slow, low-temperature fermentation built around that climate.