Hot pot & soups ── Nabe (hot pot)
Konnyaku Miso Oden
Konnyaku Miso Oden (Gunma) — skewered konjac simmered then glazed with sweet miso
Skewered konjac, simmered in sake and water then brushed with a sweet-savory miso glaze, eaten through the cold winter. Its nickname, hippataki oden, comes from the slap of drying the konjac against a cloth.
- Origin: Gunma
- Oden
- About 100 km northwest of Tokyo
What it's made of
Boiled konnyaku, skewered, is coated in a sweet-savory miso sauce for this oden. The konnyaku's springy, jiggling bite carries the mirin-sweetened miso well, giving a simple dish said to warm the body from within.
How it's made
Konnyaku is cut into bite-sized pieces, skewered, and simmered at length in water and sake. The miso sauce goes on at the end, but the konnyaku must first be patted dry, since the sauce is said not to cling well if moisture remains.
Why it took this shape
In Gunma, known for growing konnyaku tubers, this miso oden is said to have been made in households through the cold, dry winter winds that sweep down from the mountains, as a dish to warm the body. Making it by hand from locally grown tubers is said to have kept it rooted as a home-style dish.
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.
- Izakaya customsFrom the small starter dish called otoshi, the classic "for now, a draft beer" first order, ordering a little at a time, choosing tare or shio for yakitori, soy sauce dishes, a closing course, and last orders and smoking rules.
- 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.
- OdenA simmered dish of daikon, konjac, fish cakes, and eggs slow-cooked in dashi. Even under one name, the broth's color, the ingredients, and how it's eaten vary sharply from place to place, shaped in part by where it was traditionally sold.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Gunma
- Fujioka RamenAn unassuming clear soy chuka soba, rooted in the town's diner culture.
- AmanejiWheat dumplings simmered in a sweetened red bean soup, mainly eaten around Shibukawa; Kawaba village calls it amadango. It was a treat during breaks from farm work.
- Ayu ShioyakiGunma's official fish, skewered in a zigzag and salted before charcoal grilling. Sweetfish from the Kanna river are prized for their aroma and firm flesh, drawing visitors once the season opens in June.
- GojiruGround soybean paste, called go, stirred into a miso soup with seasonal vegetables. Made in soybean-growing Gunma from autumn into winter, it has long served as a warming, nutritious dish.
- KatemeshiRice cooked with barley, beans, daikon and other bulking ingredients called kate. Born of rice shortages, it survives today as a mixed rice dish often served on the Tenjin festival day.
- Sosu KatsudonBreaded pork fillet dipped in a house sauce blending Worcestershire with eel tare, served over rice. It spread as a delivery favorite in the textile town of Kiryu and is now found across the prefecture.