Hot pot & soups ── Nabe (hot pot)
Yudofu
Yudofu — tofu gently simmered in kombu-flavored water and dipped in soy sauce
Tofu gently warmed in an earthenware pot lined with kombu. It is said to have begun as temple cooking at Nanzenji and to have been served first at teahouses at the temple gate, and Kyoto's soft water underlies tofu that stays tender even when heated.
- Origin: Kyoto Kyoto (Sakyo Ward)
- Mizutaki & chiri (light broth)
- About 370 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
The ingredients are only tofu, water, and kombu for dashi, and the taste rests on those three. Tofu soft enough to tremble takes on a faint kombu savor and is eaten with soy sauce or ponzu and condiments. Kyoto tofu is described as made with domestic soybeans and a thick soy milk, and is valued for a softer, smoother mouthfeel than firm momen tofu.
How it's made
Kombu is laid on the bottom of an earthenware pot, water is added and heated, and tofu is slipped in to warm. Overheated tofu loses water and turns hard and pitted, so it is lifted out when the water is only gently trembling. The kombu softens the transfer of heat, and the earthenware serves the same end.
Why it took this shape
Yudofu follows from temple vegetarian cooking and is said to have been born at Nanzenji, then served first at teahouses at the temple's gate. Kyoto has good groundwater, and its soft water makes tofu less likely to harden. Eighty to ninety percent of tofu's weight is water, so water quality shows in the taste. It reads as a pot where a meatless temple table met tofu from a place with good water.
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
Also from Kyoto
- Chirimen SanshoChirimen-jako simmered sweet-salty with fresh sansho peppercorns in sake, soy sauce, and mirin — a Kyoto side dish said to have begun as a cook's gift in the mid-Showa era. The peppercorns leave a sharp, fragrant aftertaste.
- Ebiimo to Bodara no TaitanEbi-imo, a striped Kyoto heirloom taro named for its shrimp-like ridges, simmers together with bodara, cod dried in Hokkaido. Gelatin from the dried cod is said to keep the taro from falling apart, while the taro's bitterness softens the cod — a textbook 'deaimon' pairing.
- Fushimi no SakeSake from Fushimi in Kyoto, a district fed by groundwater from the Momoyama plateau. Its water is said to be softer than Nada's, giving a round mouthfeel and gentle, full sweetness that overlaps with the profile recognized under the GI Kyoto geographical indication.
- GanmodokiTofu mixed with vegetables, rolled into balls, and fried. Known in Kyoto as hirousu or hiryōzu, thought to have taken this form through the vegetarian temple-cooking idea of a filling dish made without meat.
- Hamo no YakimonoPike conger, riddled with fine bones, is scored with the skilled honekiri cut and then grilled — teriyaki-glazed or salted — in Kyoto cuisine. Said to have taken root in landlocked Kyoto because the hardy fish could be carried in alive, it is also a festival food for Gion Matsuri, nicknamed the 'hamo festival.'
- Kamonasu DengakuKamonasu, a round Kyoto heirloom eggplant over 10cm across sometimes called the 'queen of eggplants,' is sliced and pan-fried in plenty of oil, then topped with a sweet miso reduced with sake and mirin. It is said to have long been grown on the alluvial fan of Kamigamo.