Hot pot & soups ── Nabe (hot pot)
Kamo-nabe (Nagahama)
Kamo-nabe — wild duck hot pot, a winter specialty of Nagahama on Lake Biwa
Fatty duck sliced thin and simmered with napa cabbage, onion, burdock, and water dropwort in a Japanese-style broth. It is a representative winter taste of Nagahama in northern Shiga, and its season runs from November to March.
- Origin: Shiga 長浜市
- Soy-based & yosenabe
- About 320 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Duck is fatty and rich in nourishment, and in a pot its fat melts into the broth, lending sweetness and savor while warming the body. Excess fat is trimmed, the meat is sliced thin on the bias into bite-size pieces, and it is lightly pounded with a knife. Napa cabbage, long onion, burdock, carrot, maitake, and water dropwort soak up the broth and hold up well against the duck's strong flavor.
How it's made
Duck is cut into bite-size pieces, lightly pounded, and simmered with the vegetables in a Japanese-style broth. The broth is often a clear, soy-forward one, and some restaurants say hardly any scum rises. Some shops vary the cooking by cut, swishing the loin through briefly like shabu-shabu, simmering breast and bone-in meatballs, and grilling the liver.
Why it took this shape
Kamo-nabe is described as a representative winter taste of Nagahama in northern Shiga, eaten from about November to March when ducks are at their fattest. Lake Biwa is a wintering ground for migratory birds, and the ready supply of duck on the lakeshore probably lies behind this pot. A story that ducks snared in fishing nets were the start of the trade is also passed along, but it could not be confirmed from the sources.
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.
- 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 Shiga
- Aka Konnyaku NiKonjac dyed reddish with iron oxide, a specialty of Omi-Hachiman, is pan-simmered with bonito flakes and soy sauce. The color holds even after cooking, and the dish is a fixture at ceremonial meals and school lunches alike.
- Amenoio GohanA whole Lake Biwa trout, migrating upstream to spawn, is set atop rice and cooked together; "amenoio" means "rain fish," a name tied to the trout's autumn run after rainfall. The flesh and roe are flaked and mixed through the rice, traditionally made in large pots for gatherings.
- Biwamasu SashimiBiwamasu, a trout found only in Lake Biwa, is filleted and served raw as sashimi. The fish grows richest from early to midsummer and is prized locally as "the jewel of Lake Biwa" — a fish so scarce that it rarely reaches markets beyond the lakeshore.
- Chojifu no Karashi AeChojifu, a square baked wheat gluten unique to Shiga, is paired with cucumber and dressed in mustard-miso vinegar. The gluten also appears in Buddhist vegetarian meals, and its chewy texture with a refreshing tang makes the dish a staple at family gatherings.
- Dongame JiruEggplant scored with a crosshatch pattern is simmered in dashi, then finished with miso and ground sesame. Said to originate in the merchant town of Gokasho, the name compares the muddy look of the sesame in the broth and the eggplant's scored skin to a turtle's shell.
- Ebi MameFreshwater shrimp from Lake Biwa are simmered sweet-savory with soybeans. Inexpensive and long-keeping, the dish is eaten as everyday fare, but is also served at New Year's with a wish for long life — that one might live, like the bent-backed shrimp, into old age.