Hot pot & soups ── Nabe (hot pot)
Yanagawa Nabe
Yanagawa Nabe — loach simmered with burdock and egg
Butterflied loach simmers in a soy-sweet broth with shaved burdock, then is set with beaten egg — an Asakusa dish that also comes as maru-nabe (whole loach stunned in sake) and nuki-nabe (deboned loach), the egg making yanagawa-nabe the mildest of the three.
- Origin: Tokyo
- Sukiyaki-style (simmered in warishita)
What it's made of
Loach is split open and simmered with burdock root in a sweet-savory broth, then softly bound with beaten egg. Unlike the whole-loach hotpot, splitting and deboning the fish before binding it with egg is said to give the plain-tasting loach a mellow richness and a lighter finish. The aroma of burdock ties the dish together, a flavor said to carry the spirit of old Edo.
How it's made
Loach that has been purged of mud is swum through sake to remove any off odor, then rubbed with salt and rinsed to take away its sliminess. The split, deboned loach is simmered in the sweet-savory broth together with shaved burdock, and once cooked through, beaten egg is poured in to bind it. Green onion and mitsuba are scattered on top, with sansho pepper added to taste — a finish said to have been handed down unchanged.
Why it took this shape
From the practice of simmering live loach whole, the idea of splitting and deboning the fish for easier eating is said to have emerged, and binding it with egg is said to have added a gentler mouthfeel to the plain fish. In the Edo period, when eating meat from four-legged animals was forbidden, loach was prized as a food said to build strength, and this dish is said to embody the resourcefulness of townspeople finding an easy way to enjoy it, carried through to its present form.
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 Tokyo
- Abura SobaNo broth is poured at all — noodles are tossed in a soy-and-sesame-oil tare pooled at the bottom of the bowl, said to have started at shops in the Musashino area in the late 1950s, with vinegar and chili oil stirred in partway through.
- Ajitsuke NoriSheet nori brushed with a soy-and-sugar seasoning and toasted crisp, said to have been devised as a gift for an imperial visit to Kyoto in the Meiji era. Its snap gives way to a burst of flavor and aroma.
- Anago ZushiConger eel, simmered sweet and savory, is laid over sushi rice and brushed with a reduced glaze called tsume — a staple Edomae topping from a fish that thrived in Tokyo Bay's nutrient-rich waters, its slick skin demanding a sushi chef's careful hand to clean.
- AnmitsuCubes of agar jelly topped with red peas, sweet bean paste, and dark syrup. Said to have begun when a Ginza sweets shop in the early Showa era added its own bean paste to the simpler "mitsumame" — jelly and peas in syrup — marking a point where wagashi met café culture.
- Asakusa shichimiA seven-spice chili blend from a shop tracing back to 1625 in Asakusa's old Yagenbori district, often described as the origin point of shichimi togarashi. The neighborhood's history as a hub for medicinal-herb wholesalers is credited with shaping a blend informed by traditional Chinese medicine, and the shop is known for custom-mixing blends to order.
- Bettara-zukeDaikon salted first, then pickled sweet in rice malt and sugar — said to descend from a lightly pickled daikon once sold at Edo's ebisu-kō market. The rice malt gives it a natural sweetness, and it still headlines Nihonbashi's autumn "Bettara Market."