Hot pot & soups ── Nabe (hot pot)
Kashiwa no Hikizuri
Kashiwa no hikizuri — a chicken sukiyaki finished with a raw egg dip
Chicken and vegetables are seared in a pot, seasoned with sugar and soy sauce, and dipped in raw egg — a chicken sukiyaki. Aichi's poultry farming has long thrived, giving rise to the Nagoya Cochin breed in the early Meiji era, and this dish is said to be an unusually rare chicken sukiyaki nationwide.
- Origin: Aichi
- Sukiyaki-style (simmered in warishita)
- About 270 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Kashiwa no hikizuri is a chicken sukiyaki made by grilling chicken and vegetables in a pot, seasoning them with sugar and soy sauce, and dipping them in beaten egg. Poultry farming flourished in Aichi, producing the well-known Nagoya Cochin breed in the early Meiji era, and the dish is said to have taken hold as a chicken sukiyaki rare elsewhere in Japan. Aichi's hilly terrain, once rich in wild fowl, is also said to have played a part.
How it's made
Chicken and vegetables are cut into easy-to-eat pieces, lightly cooked in a pot, then seasoned with sugar and soy sauce and cooked through before being dipped in beaten egg. Tamari is said to be used instead of soy sauce in the traditional version, and shiitake, shirataki noodles, and immature egg yolks called 'tamamichi' are said to be popular ingredients. Udon or rice is often added at the end to finish the meal.
Why it took this shape
Several accounts explain the name: one says old, dull knives couldn't cleanly cut through the chicken skin, so a piece would drag ('hikizuru') as it was lifted; another says the chicken is dragged around the pot as it grills; and a third traces it to young men who once stole chickens and dragged them home hidden behind their backs. It was once a dish made to welcome guests, but today it is said to be eaten by many households on New Year's Eve.
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
- Toriniku no SukiyakiA whole chicken, offal included, is piled onto a platter with napa cabbage and chrysanthemum greens and simmered in a bold sugar-and-soy broth — a gathering-day hot pot from the Kasuya-to-Munakata area, where poultry-raising is said to have taken off after an Edo-era famine.
- Gyu NabeA Yokohama-born hot pot of beef, tofu and chrysanthemum greens simmered from the start in a soy or miso-based sauce. Born of the port city's encounter with Western meat-eating culture, it is said to trace to a tavern owner who opened one of the first beef-pot restaurants.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Aichi
- Funa MisoCrucian carp is simmered slowly with soybeans for around five hours, then finished in a sauce of red miso and coarse sugar. A freshwater fish dish of the Kiso rivers' lower basin, made with fatty winter carp simmered until the bones soften through.
- Gohei MochiFreshly cooked non-glutinous rice is pounded, pressed flat on a skewer, and grilled with a miso glaze. Said to have originated in the mountainous Chubu region, it's traditionally made the night before a festival praying for safety in mountain work.
- Aichi HakozushiVinegared rice is packed into a wooden frame, topped with shrimp, eel, shiitake, and egg arranged diagonally, and pressed. Placing toppings on the diagonal so everyone gets a fair share of each is said to be a feature of the Owari and western Mikawa style, made for celebrations.
- Hebo MeshiAdult and larval giant hornets are simmered sweet and savory, then folded into freshly cooked rice. Said to have served as a prized protein source across the mountains from Shinshu to Okumikawa, it's now more often served as a treat for guests.
- Iga ManjuSweet bean paste is wrapped in rice flour dough, then coated with dyed sticky rice grains. One account ties the name to the grains' resemblance to a chestnut's spiny husk, and in the western Mikawa region it's said to be offered to Hina dolls at the Doll Festival.
- Aichi Miso OdenA pot of sweet red miso sits in the center of the simmering pot, and daikon, tofu, and other ingredients simmered in dashi are dipped into it before eating. While soy-based Kanto-style oden spread in Edo, Aichi is said to have settled on dipping in soybean miso instead.