Hot pot & soups ── Nabe (hot pot)
Tecchiri
Tecchiri — fugu (pufferfish) hot pot, eaten with ponzu
Fugu meat and bones simmered with napa cabbage and tofu in kombu dashi and eaten with ponzu. The name is said to join 'teppo', a nickname for fugu, with 'chiri-nabe', and to have come into use in Osaka around 1955.
- Origin: Osaka City, Osaka
- Mizutaki & chiri (light broth)
- About 400 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Fugu flesh is delicate and springy when bitten, and the bones make good stock. Simmering in kombu dashi without heavy seasoning lets the fish's savor pass straight into the broth. Napa cabbage, carrot, long onion, shungiku, and mushrooms join the pot, and the diner dips everything in ponzu with condiments. Many restaurants finish by making zosui with the fugu stock.
How it's made
Water or dashi goes into a pot lined with kombu, and chunks of fugu are simmered in it. The broth is not seasoned, and ponzu is the usual dip; because overcooked flesh tightens, pieces are taken just as they finish. Adding the bones first to draw out stock, then vegetables and tofu, deepens the soup.
Why it took this shape
Fugu is poisonous enough to kill, so it was nicknamed 'teppo' (gun), and as a pot of white fish is called chiri-nabe, 'teppo' and 'chiri' are said to have contracted into 'tecchiri'. The name is said to have been used in Osaka from around 1955. Eating fugu was banned from the Edo period, lifted in Yamaguchi Prefecture in 1888 and in Osaka in 1941, and it became widely eaten after the lifting.
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
- Asuka NabeA hot pot from Asuka Village of chicken and seasonal vegetables simmered in milk and dashi. It is said to trace to a dairy product brought from Tang China in the Asuka period and later reworked by monks who simmered their chickens in milk, taking its present form around the early Showa era.
- Bishu NabeChicken, gizzard, and pork are simmered with nothing more than salt, pepper, and sake in this hot pot from Saijo, one of Japan's noted brewing towns. It is said to have begun as a simple meal cooked by sake brewers between batches, seasoned lightly so as not to dull their palate for tasting.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Related lineage
- TarachiriCod fillets simmered with tofu and vegetables in kombu dashi or hot water and eaten with ponzu or soy sauce. 'Chiri' is said to refer to how fish flesh curls when put in hot water.
- KanisukiCrab 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.
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.