Hot pot & soups ── Nabe (hot pot)
Hamo Nabe
Hamo nabe — pike conger simmered with onion and potato, Senshu-style
Pike conger, bone-cut for its many fine bones, simmers in a broth made from its own head and bones, together with onion and potato. Said to be distinctive to the Senshu area, reputed birthplace of Japanese onion cultivation, its onions' sweetness is said to suit the mild fish well.
- Origin: Osaka
- Mizutaki & chiri (light broth)
- About 420 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
This hot pot from the Senshu area simmers bone-cut conger pike with onion and potato. The dashi drawn from the fish's head and bones takes on the onion's sweetness, said to pair beautifully with the mild flavor of the conger pike. In Senshu, a coastal area blessed with the bounty of Osaka Bay, conger pike has long been a familiar ingredient, and hamo nabe is said to have long been eaten there, the sweetness of Senshu onion said to spread through the whole pot.
How it's made
Dashi is drawn from kelp and the conger pike's bones and head, then seasoned with sake, mirin, and soy sauce. Onion, potato, and shiitake are added and simmered, and once tender, bite-sized pieces of bone-cut conger pike go in. It's ready once the ingredients are cooked through, it's said, and onion is said to be indispensable to the dish. Bone-cut conger pike is said to be sold conveniently at supermarkets in Osaka, making it easy to enjoy at home too.
Why it took this shape
Senshu is said to be the birthplace of onion cultivation in Japan, and pairing this area's sweet onion with conger pike is said to be the Senshu way. Coming into season twice a year — early summer before spawning and autumn after — conger pike is riddled with tiny bones and hard to eat without the bone-cutting technique, which is thought to be why it came to be simmered whole, ingredients and all, in a hot pot. It's said to be enjoyed at seafood restaurants and izakaya across the prefecture as well as at home, with some municipalities in Senshu offering hamo nabe products as hometown tax gifts.
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
- Asuka NabeA hot pot from Asuka Village of chicken and seasonal vegetables simmered in milk and dashi. It is said to trace to a dairy product brought from Tang China in the Asuka period and later reworked by monks who simmered their chickens in milk, taking its present form around the early Showa era.
- Bishu NabeChicken, gizzard, and pork are simmered with nothing more than salt, pepper, and sake in this hot pot from Saijo, one of Japan's noted brewing towns. It is said to have begun as a simple meal cooked by sake brewers between batches, seasoned lightly so as not to dull their palate for tasting.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Contrast
- Hamo no YakimonoPike conger, riddled with fine bones, is scored with the skilled honekiri cut and then grilled — teriyaki-glazed or salted — in Kyoto cuisine. Said to have taken root in landlocked Kyoto because the hardy fish could be carried in alive, it is also a festival food for Gion Matsuri, nicknamed the 'hamo festival.'
- Gaccho no KaraageGaccho, small fish of about 10-20cm from Osaka Bay including dragonet species, are filleted matsuba-style, dusted in potato starch, and deep-fried whole, bones included. Long enjoyed as a snack or with drinks, they are said to be a specialty of the Senshu coast.
Also from Osaka
- AkanekoSteamed sticky rice pounded with wheat flour is dusted with sugar and soybean flour — also called hangesho mochi, for the rite marking the end of rice planting. The whole-ground wheat flour once left the mochi brownish, said to resemble a cat's round back and give the dish its name.
- BatteraThin slices of vinegared mackerel and white kelp sheet are pressed together in a wooden mold. A sushi shop in Minami-Senba is said to have devised it in 1891, naming it after the Portuguese word for a small boat because the original version, made with konoshiro, resembled one.
- Beni Shoga TenThin slices of red ginger, pickled in plum vinegar, are battered and deep-fried. The plum vinegar's tang and the ginger's bite are said to suit drinks well, and the fritter appears as a one-sen tempura in Sakunosuke Oda's 1940 novella 'Meoto Zenzai,' evidence of how long it has fed ordinary Osakans.
- Beni-zuiki to Aburaage no TaitanBeni-zuiki, reddish taro leaf-stalks that can grow to 2 meters tall, is soaked in vinegared water to remove its bitterness, then simmered with fried tofu in dashi and soy sauce — a summer obanzai dish. Its spongy cross-section is said to soak up flavor well, and it has been named a Naniwa specialty product.
- Dote YakiParboiled beef tendon simmers for a long time against a bank of miso and mirin piled around the pan's edge like a levee, or dote. Rich and sweet-savory, it pairs well with drinks and is said to be a beloved downtown Osaka food, with many shops concentrated in the Shinsekai district.
- EhomakiA thick sushi roll eaten whole and in silence while facing the year's auspicious direction on Setsubun, the last day of winter. Its origin is not settled, but theories passed down include a game among the geisha quarters and a prayer for prosperity by Osaka's Semba merchant houses.