Hot pot & soups ── Nabe (hot pot)
Imotaki
Imotaki — a riverside autumn hot pot of taro, chicken, and mochi dumplings
Chicken, taro, konjac, and shiitake simmer together in this hot pot, said to have begun in Ozu. Local lore traces it to a gathering where people brought their own home-grown taro, and in autumn crowds still gather on the riverbank to eat it under the moon.
- Origin: Ehime Ozu
- Soy-based & yosenabe
- About 700 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
On autumn evenings, steam rises thick from a pot set on a riverbank, carrying the mealy scent of taro and the sweet-savory smell of a soy-based broth. It is a simple hot pot of chicken, taro, deep-fried tofu, and shiitake mushrooms. Taro is said to symbolize prosperity for descendants, since a parent corm sprouts child and then grandchild corms, and the dish has long been served on festive occasions. It is said to trace back to Ozu City, with a history reaching more than 350 years into the domain era.
How it's made
Taro is peeled and parboiled in lightly salted water, and deep-fried tofu is cut into bite-size pieces and blanched to remove excess oil. Dumplings kneaded from glutinous rice flour to about the softness of an earlobe are boiled separately. Chicken is stir-fried, then simmered with the taro and tofu in stock; once the taro is tender, the dumplings go in, and the pot is seasoned sweet and savory with soy sauce and sugar before being served hot, broth and all.
Why it took this shape
The dish is said to trace back to a pot shared at a traditional gathering called okomori, where each participant brought local taro to add. Since 1966 it is said to have taken root as a tourist event enjoyed by a riverbank under the autumn moon, drawing more than seventy thousand visitors a year at its peak. The custom spread from Ozu to other parts of the prefecture, and the sight of pots shared on riverbanks on long autumn nights is said to have become an emblem of the season in Ehime.
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.
- Osechi and zoni for the New YearA guide to the meaning behind osechi's tiered boxes, the regional differences in zoni (square vs. round mochi, clear vs. miso broth), and the nanakusa-gayu custom.
- Setsubun: ehomaki and lucky beansA guide to ehomaki, the uncut sushi roll said to be eaten facing a lucky direction on Setsubun, and to mamemaki, the bean-throwing custom with roasted lucky beans.
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.
- 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.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Ehime
- Bote ChaRoasted tea is whisked to a froth with a salted bamboo whisk and poured over black-bean rice with toppings like bamboo shoot — a dish from Matsuyama. Said to have been devised by a domain lord's household during a period of enforced frugality, it's still served at a temple's springtime Buddha festival.
- EbitenSmall shrimp are ground shell and all, worked with white fish and tofu, and fried into a cake — a fish-paste product from eastern Ehime. The salt is kept light to let the tofu's sweetness and the shrimp's aroma come through, with the ground shell left in for a gritty bite.
- Igisu DofuIgisu seaweed and raw soybean flour are simmered into stock and chilled firm like agar, a dish from Imabari. Its cool texture is meant to coax back a summer appetite, and households differ over whether to fold in shrimp or leave it plain.
- SatsumaGrilled fish is flaked and worked into barley miso, thinned with a stock from its own bones, and ladled over hot barley rice — a dish of southern Ehime. Said to have started as a fisherman's trick for making dry barley rice easier to eat, with the fish varying by area and household.
- Tai SomenA whole sea bream is simmered and set on a large platter of boiled somen noodles, the cooking broth doubling as a dipping sauce. The noodles are linked to the Tanabata weaver-star legend and the fish to good fortune, and the dish has long been served to family at weddings and milestone birthdays.
- TaimeshiEastern Ehime cooks a whole sea bream into the rice pot; the south instead lays raw fillets marinated in egg and soy over hot rice. Considered an auspicious fish, it appears at celebrations too, and which style a household follows tends to run by region.