Hot pot & soups ── Nabe (hot pot)
Inobuta Nabe
Inobuta nabe — a sesame miso hot pot of wild-boar-crossed pork
Meat from 'inobuta', a cross between wild boar and domestic sow, is simmered with vegetables and mushrooms in a sesame-miso broth — a hot pot from the Mitomi area, said to lack any gamey edge and carry a sweet richness in its fat, its breeding encouraged after the war on a base of local hunting culture.
- Origin: Yamanashi City, Yamanashi
- Miso-based
- About 100 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Meat from inobuta, a cross between wild boar and domestic pig, is simmered in a sesame-laced miso broth with vegetables and mushrooms. Almost none of the gaminess associated with wild game comes through, and the fat carries a faint sweetness and richness, locals say. The lean meat, more tender than ordinary pork, is said to stand out for its full flavor.
How it's made
A sesame miso broth is brought to a boil in a pot, inobuta meat is added and cooked through, then local vegetables such as napa cabbage, mushrooms, and shungiku greens are added generously to simmer, people say. Eating it gradually as the ingredients cook is said to be the common way.
Why it took this shape
Yamanashi, much of it forest, is said to have long had a hunting culture built around wild boar. After the war, raising inobuta, a cross of wild boar and sow, is said to have been encouraged, and from there the hotpot combining the meat with local vegetables and mushrooms seems to have taken hold. Rich in nutrition and warming to the body, it's said to have become a favored stamina dish supporting life in the mountains.
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
- Ankou-nabeMonkfish meat, skin, liver, and stomach simmered with vegetables, a winter pot of northern Ibaraki. It is described as a more approachable version of dobujiru, which fishermen ate aboard their boats, and comes in miso and soy-sauce versions.
- Beka NabeSardines pickled in rice bran are simmered with napa cabbage, mushrooms, and sake lees in this Noto winter hot pot, said to descend from a preservation method from before refrigeration — its name reputedly a nod to how commonly the cheap fish was eaten.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Yamanashi
- Akebono Daizu no EdamameThe 'akebono' soybean, said to be 1.6 times the size of an ordinary bean, is picked young and salt-boiled — an edamame from the Akebono area of Minobu town. Grown since the Meiji era but resistant to mechanization, aging growers have made it scarce enough to be called a 'phantom bean'.
- Amanatto no OsekihanMade without azuki or cowpea beans, glutinous rice is dyed red with food coloring and mixed with candied sweet beans — a Yamanashi take on celebratory red rice, sweet-salty with a sprinkle of sesame salt. A similarly sweet red rice is said to exist far away in Hokkaido and parts of Tohoku.
- AnbinSweet potato and wheat flour are kneaded with hot water, wrapped around bean paste, slapped flat, and steamed — a sweet from the Kyonan region. Its name is said to come from the slapping motion, revived in Ichikawamisato town's Rokugo area after a local school's closure sparked a heritage-food effort.
- Awabi no NigaiAbalone from Suruga Bay was soy-sauce-marinated and hauled in barrels by horse, the jostling and body heat said to have worked the flavor deep in — a specialty from landlocked Kofu. Sliced thin and paired with its liver, shiso, and cucumber, it endures as a taste of the sea inland.
- Azuki HotoHoto noodles, cut thicker than usual, are simmered in sweet azuki bean soup in place of mochi — a festival food in Yamanashi. The summer festival at Miwa Shrine in Hokuto city's Wakamiko area is nicknamed the 'hoto festival', and azuki's red color is said to ward off misfortune.
- Hirauchi TanmenA salt-based tanmen from Kofu, Yamanashi, built on wide, flat noodles said to feel almost like fettuccine. Bean sprouts, pork, and napa cabbage pile on top for a vegetable-heavy bowl carried on today by several shops around the prefecture.