Place
Nara
奈良県
36 items
● 32 born here(Amago no Kanroni, Asuka Nabe, Ayu Zushi, and more) / ● 2 raised here(Yamato Gyu, Yamato Nikudori) / ● 2 prepared here(Nara-ae, Nara-zuke)
Born here32
- Amago no Kanroniあまごの甘露煮river trout simmered slowly in roasted tea and sweet soyRiver trout, called the queen of the mountain stream, first grilled plain and then simmered in roasted tea before being finished sweet and savory in soy sauce and mirin — a dish of the Yoshino and Uda districts. The fish is said to have little of a river-fish's usual edge, and the dish is remembered as a mother's home cooking.
- Asuka Nabe飛鳥鍋Mizutaki & chiri (light broth)chicken and vegetables simmered in a milk-enriched brothA 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.
- Ayu Zushi鮎寿司sweetfish pressed whole atop vinegared riceA whole sweetfish pressed onto vinegared rice, made along the Yoshino River. Sweetfish, raised on river-stone algae, are called kogyo, 'fragrant fish,' and the sushi is said to have become known in part because a sushi shop featured in a kabuki play actually existed in Nara.
- Dengaraでんがらa bean-paste rice cake wrapped in magnolia leaves for Boys' DayA sweet from Higashiyoshino and Kawakami villages: bean-paste mochi steamed inside magnolia leaves. It is made for Boys' Day, wishing a son success and safe growth, and because each leaf on a single branch is wrapped around its own mochi, the finished cluster hangs like a bunch of fruit.
- Ei no Nikogoriエイの煮こごりstingray simmered sweet and soy until its own gelatin sets into a jellyRed stingray simmered sweet and savory in soy sauce and sugar, a Nara dish. Its own gelatin dissolves into the cooking liquid and sets into a jelly once cooled, giving the dish its name, nikogori. It is said to have been eaten together with noppei at Kasuga Shrine's Wakamiya festival.
- Hangesho Mochi半夏生餅／小麦餅／さなぶり餅cracked wheat pounded with glutinous rice, made at the close of rice plantingA Nara Basin mochi pounded from cracked wheat and glutinous rice around hangesho, the eleventh day after the summer solstice. It is made at the point when the wheat harvest and rice planting both wind down, and is also called sanaburi mochi for the rite that sends off the rice-field deity.
- Imobotaいもぼたa taro-and-rice mochi wrapped around sweet red bean pasteA Nara-style sweet rice cake made by cooking taro into non-glutinous rice, mashing it, and wrapping it around sweet red bean paste. When glutinous rice was precious, taro's own stickiness is said to have stood in for it, and in many areas it is offered at the household altar on the Day of the Boar in November, once the harvest is in.
- Iro Gohan色ご飯rice cooked with root vegetables in a soy-seasoned brothA takikomi rice dish called iro gohan in Nara, cooked with carrot, burdock, and fried tofu in a soy-seasoned dashi. It is said to have begun as a way to stretch scarce rice by mixing in other ingredients, and appears both at village events and everyday tables.
- Itadori no Nimonoいたどりの煮ものpeeled Japanese knotweed stir-fried after a long soak to draw out its sournessA dish from Nara's Yoshino mountains that peels and soaks Japanese knotweed, a sharply astringent and sour wild green, before stir-frying it. Its name, itadori, is said to come from a belief that rubbing it on a wound eases the pain, and the plant can also be salted for long storage.
- Kakigoriかき氷shaved ice, a summer sweet with roots in Nara's ice-worship shrineShaved ice topped with syrup, a summer sweet in Nara. Nara City's Himuro Shrine is said to have sent ice to the imperial court for roughly seventy years, and Sei Shonagon is said to describe shaved ice sweetened with amazura sap in the Pillow Book.
- Kakinoha-zushi柿の葉寿司mackerel sushi wrapped in persimmon leaves for their tanninThin-sliced salt-cured mackerel over vinegared rice, wrapped tight in a bitter persimmon leaf and left overnight — a pressed sushi from Yoshino, Nara, where the leaf's tannin is said to do double duty as preservative and flavoring.
- Kashiwa no Sukiyakiかしわのすき焼きSukiyaki-style (simmered in warishita)chicken sukiyaki simmered in a sweet soy brothA Nara-style sukiyaki named for kashiwa, the Kansai word for chicken meat. Because cattle are held sacred to the deity of the Tenjin shrines, chicken sukiyaki is said to have been eaten in place of beef at their autumn festivals, simmered with napa cabbage and grilled tofu in a sweet soy broth.
- Mana Mehariまなめはりa rice ball wrapped whole in salted Shimokita spring greensA rice ball wrapped in salted Shimokita spring greens, a traditional Yamato vegetable grown only in Shimokitayama Village. It is made the same way as the mustard-leaf mehari-zushi of the Totsukawa area but is said to be milder and somewhat smaller, and has long been carried as a lunch for mountain work.
- Miwa Somen三輪素麺Nara's temple-town noodle, held to be the root of Japanese somenAccording to the tradition kept by Omiwa Shrine, a priest's son recognized that the land and clear streams around Mount Miwa suited wheat cultivation, and had wheat flour worked into noodles — the dish's beginning. In the Edo period, pilgrims traveling to Ise are said to have carried the technique onward to Banshu, Shodoshima, and Shimabara.
- Namabushi to Negi no Nimono生節とねぎの煮ものhalf-dried bonito simmered with sweet local scallionsHalf-smoked bonito, an intermediate stage in making dried bonito flakes, simmered in a strong soy dashi with local scallions such as Kawanishi's Yuzaki negi. Landlocked Nara is said to have long valued the fish for how well it keeps, and its pairing with scallion is a common combination.
- Nanairo Oae七色お和えseven summer vegetables dressed in sesame, miso, and sugarA Shingon-sect Obon offering dish that dresses seven seasonal vegetables — eggplant, kabocha, burdock, taro-stem, and more — in a coating of ground sesame, miso, and sugar. In leaner times, gathering as many as seven vegetables for one dish is said to have been something of a luxury.
- Nara Kaki Namasu柿なますdaikon and carrot in vinegar, sweetened with dried persimmonA Nara New Year dish that adds dried persimmon to a red-and-white vinegared salad of daikon and carrot. In an age when sugar was costly, the persimmon's sweetness is said to have softened the vinegar's edge, and the red-and-white colors, echoing a ceremonial paper cord, carry a wish for peace.
- Nara Noppei奈良のっぺいa thick vegetable stew made for the Kasuga shrine's December festivalA Nara vegetable stew of taro, daikon, and carrot simmered in a kelp-and-dried-shiitake stock, thickened naturally as the taro breaks down — a vegetarian dish. It is said to be served to participants at the Oyadokoro rite that precedes Kasuga Shrine's December festival.
- Nyumenにゅうめんthin wheat noodles served warm in a light dashi brothA warm somen dish from Sakurai's Miwa district, birthplace of Miwa somen. The noodle-making craft is said to trace back to a prayer offered at Omiwa Shrine, and the same noodles are eaten chilled in summer and warm, as nyumen, through the winter.
- Shikishikiしきしきa thin wheat-flour griddle cake folded around sweet pea pasteA prewar Nara snack made by thinning wheat flour with water and sugar and frying it thin like a crepe. It is usually folded around a filling of sweetened pea paste, and is counted alongside Miwa somen and hangesho mochi as part of Nara's wheat-growing food culture.
- Tako Momiuri蛸もみうりoctopus and salt-rubbed cucumber dressed in sweet vinegarThinly sliced cucumber rubbed with salt and dressed with boiled octopus in sweet vinegar, a Nara dish. It is said to be made for the sanaburi rite that gives thanks to the rice-field deity after planting, the octopus's suckers standing in for a wish that the seedlings take firm hold.
- Tatsuta-age竜田揚げsoy-marinated starch-fried chickenChicken seasoned in soy sauce, dusted in potato starch, and fried. Named for the way its color and starch flecks are likened to Nara's Tatsuta River, famous for its autumn maples.
- Tenri Ramen天理ラーメンShoyu — soy saucewhite cabbage, garlic and a spicy edgeA soy broth loaded with stir-fried hakusai cabbage, garlic and a spicy edge.
- Totsukawa Sanma Zushiさんま寿司vinegared Pacific saury pressed onto sushi rice, or salt-fermented for New YearA Pacific saury sushi from Totsukawa Village that splits into two styles even within the village: the north salt-cures and ferments the fish with rice into a nare-zushi, while the south cures it in vinegar and presses it onto sushi rice. It is said to use lean saury that has swum south through the Kumano Sea.
- Warabi Mochi蕨餅a soft jelly-like sweet made from bracken-root starchA Nara sweet made by cooking bracken-root starch with water and sugar into a soft, chilled jelly. Bracken is said to have grown thick on the hillside after the annual burning of Mount Wakakusa, making the area a source of the starch, and an Edo-period travel account already names it a specialty of teahouses there.
- Chagayu茶粥rice simmered thin in roasted tea, Nara's everyday breakfastCold cooked rice simmered thin in brewed roasted tea, an everyday Nara dish. A forerunner of it is said to appear in the menu for Todai-ji's Omizutori rite, and it is so tied to breakfast that a local saying holds that morning in Yamato begins with chagayu.
- Yamato Chameshi奈良茶飯rice and soybeans cooked in roasted tea, as eaten by Todai-ji's monksRice cooked with roasted soybeans in brewed tea, said to have originated with Todai-ji's monks. Travelers are said to have carried it to Edo, where shops near Asakusa made it famous, while in Nara itself it is said to have only spread widely again from the Meiji era on.
- Fuki Dawaraふき俵salted rice and soybeans wrapped in butterbur leaves, offered at rice plantingA rice ball from the Yamato Highlands, made from rice cooked with roasted soybeans and salt, then wrapped in butterbur leaves. It is said to be set out along the paddy ridge beside the rice seedlings at sabiraki, the rite marking the start of planting, and shaped to resemble a straw rice bale, which gives it its name.
- Yamato Zoni大和の雑煮New Year mochi soup in white miso, eaten with sweetened soybean flourNara-style New Year mochi soup with round rice cakes, thin celebratory daikon, taro, and tofu in a white miso broth. In many households the mochi is lifted out and dipped in sweetened soybean flour; the tofu is said to stand for a white-walled storehouse, the taro for family prosperity.
- Yamato-na to Usuage no Nimono大和まなと薄揚げの煮ものa local leaf mustard simmered with fried tofuA Nara home dish that stir-simmers yamato-na, a traditional brassica leaf vegetable, with fried tofu. It is said to descend from the leaf vegetable named suzuna in the Kojiki, and grows sweeter after frost in winter, though breeding has since made it available year-round.
- Yoshino Kuzumochi葛餅a jelly-like cake made from Yoshino arrowroot starchA Nara sweet made by dissolving Yoshino arrowroot starch in water and sugar and stirring it over heat until translucent. It is refined through the Yoshino-zarashi method, repeated rinsing in midwinter groundwater, and is eaten with soybean flour or dark syrup, whether chilled firm or still faintly warm from the pan.
- Zuiki no Nimonoずいきの煮ものtaro leaf-stalks simmered with fried tofuA Nara home dish of taro leaf-stalks, called zuiki, simmered with fried tofu in dashi. The stalks are peeled and parboiled to draw out their harshness before use, and are sometimes dried into a preserve called imogara; in some areas it is offered at the household altar for Obon alongside nanairo oae.
Raised here2
- Yamato Gyu大和牛another cattle brand traced to the same 14th-century recordJapanese Black raised under centrally managed bloodlines and feed within Nara — also depicted as a noted breed in the same 14th-century record, its fat said to melt smoothly.
- Yamato Nikudori大和肉鶏reviving a Kansai-famed prewar chickenSaid to be bred by Nara's livestock experiment station from a three-way cross of large shamo, Nagoya breed and New Hampshire, in an effort to revive the flavor of a prewar fowl once famed across the Kansai region; reportedly reared 120–140 days.
Prepared here2
- Nara-ae奈良和えsimmered vegetables tossed with chopped narazuke picklesA Nara home dish that folds chopped narazuke pickles into a simmer of osmund fern, dried gourd shavings, and fried tofu. It is said to taste best once cooled and settled, and is served in school lunches as a dish even children who dislike narazuke on its own tend to enjoy.
- Nara-zuke奈良漬けmelon repacked in sake lees until it turns the color of amberMelon salted, then repacked again and again in aged sake lees — the pickle most closely identified with the whole kasuzuke family. It's known for the labor of repeated repacking until the flesh turns amber.