Hot pot & soups ── Nabe (hot pot)
Kanisuki
Kanisuki — crab hot pot with vegetables, a pot said to have been devised in Dotonbori
Crab such as matsuba-gani simmered with napa cabbage and other vegetables in dashi. It is said to have been devised in 1960 in west Dotonbori in Osaka and named with a hint from udon-suki.
- Origin: Osaka Osaka (Chuo Ward)
- Soy-based & yosenabe
- About 400 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Cooked, crab meat shows a sweetness that comes apart in the mouth, and the savor from the shell moves into the dashi. Napa cabbage and other vegetables soak up the broth and carry the crab's aroma as a gentle sweetness. The crab miso can be eaten straight or dissolved a little in the dashi. The seasoning is light, so the broth lets the crab's aroma come forward.
How it's made
At the restaurant, napa cabbage is put in first to release its sweetness into the dashi, then the crab goes in for a minute or two. Simmering longer shrinks the meat and toughens it, so diners start eating when the color changes. The leftover dashi gathers the savor of crab and vegetables, so finishing with rice porridge or noodles is favored.
Why it took this shape
Kanisuki is said to have been devised in 1960 at a restaurant called Sengokubune in west Dotonbori, Osaka, as matsuba-gani season opened. The name is said to have been chosen with a hint from udon-suki, a dish familiar in Osaka. It is also said to be based on okini, a fishermen's dish of seafood boiled in salted water along the San'in coast and the Sea of Japan, so a fishing region's way of eating became a hot pot in an Osaka restaurant.
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 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.