Rice dishes
Tororo Manma
Tororo manma — grated mountain yam over rice in miso broth
Grated 'yamanoimo', a stickier mountain yam than nagaimo, is thinned with a rich miso broth and poured over rice — a New Year's dish said to ward off misfortune, still eaten on New Year's morning, with Yurihonjo hosting an annual eating contest built around it.
- Origin: Akita Yurihonjo
- About 410 km north of Tokyo
What it's made of
The Akita style of tororo: grated mountain yam thinned with a strong miso broth and poured over freshly cooked rice. Using a firmer variety than nagaimo is characteristic, and its white, sticky texture dissolves into the rich broth, giving the rice a smooth, slippery finish once poured over. Believed to build strength, it is said to have been treated as an auspicious food for the New Year.
How it's made
Dried sardines and kelp are soaked in water to make a stock, bonito flakes are added, and miso is stirred in. This stock is worked gradually into mountain yam ground in a mortar. It is poured over freshly cooked rice and eaten with green onion scattered on top if desired. Some areas are said to sprinkle tororo in a line at the gate or offer it at the household shrine.
Why it took this shape
In rice-growing Akita, cultivating mountain yam, whose growing season does not compete with rice farming, is said to have spread widely. Prized as a strength-building, highly nutritious food and believed to ward off evil, it is thought to be why a custom took root in various places of eating it on New Year's Day or the day after a celebration, to pray for good health and a harmonious household.
Before you go
- How to use a convenience storeA quick guide to choosing rice balls and hot snacks, buying coffee, paying by cash, IC card, or tap payment, using the eat-in corner, and sorting your trash — the basics for a first visit.
- Station food and ekiben (station bento)Where and when to find ekiben (station bento) before it sells out, etiquette for eating on board, how standing soba and udon stalls work, and where to find souvenirs sold inside the station.
- Soraben and airport diningA guide to what soraben means and how it differs from ekiben, whether to buy before or after security, etiquette for eating on board, airport restaurants, and things to check before buying food souvenirs to take home.
Dishes in the same style
- Aburafu DonDeep-fried wheat gluten, shaped into a log, is simmered in a sweet-savory broth and set with egg over rice, katsudon-style — a Tome City bowl said to trace to a tofu shop's shelf-stable gluten product, later turned into a bowl dish by a local innkeeper.
- Aburi-zushiNigiri with just its surface flash-seared by torch or hot iron. Unlike Edomae's shigoto curing for keeping, the searing here is done purely for the change in aroma and fat it brings — a relatively recent way of eating sushi.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Contrast
- Tonburi Nagaimo AeTonburi — the tiny, crunchy seeds of kochia, dried and hulled through a laborious process — are tossed with julienned mountain yam and a dash of soy sauce. Odate, the only place in Japan that produces it, is said to have kept the technique alive for generations.
- AsazukeBroken rice grains are pureed, simmered, and seasoned sweet-and-sour with sugar and vinegar, then mixed with cucumber, turnip, and seasonal fruit — a summer dessert unrelated to the pickle of the same name, said to refresh women after a day planting rice.
Also from Akita
- Akazushi (Akazuke)Cooked glutinous rice cured briefly in red shiso and vinegar — an Akita sushi with no fish in it at all, a plant-based cousin of narezushi also offered at Obon altars.
- Edokei RamenA soy ramen topped with a knob of bright red chili miso built on garlic and garlic chives. Stirred in gradually as you eat, it turns a mild bowl steadily richer and spicier — a specialty of Akita City.
- Akita HoshimochiSliced mochi is strung up, soaked in water, then left to freeze and thaw through the winter cold in a process called 'kanjime' — the result crisp and filling, said to have fueled breaks during rice-planting season.
- Imonoko JiruBaby taro corms called 'imonoko' simmer with chicken, mushrooms, and wild greens in miso or soy — an autumn soup said to use taro grown in Yokote's Sannai district, prized for its soft bite, and set alongside kiritanpo nabe as the region's autumn counterpart.
- Akita no SakeAkita sake, brewed with soft water in deliberate contrast to Nada's hard water, aiming for a mellow, delicate character. Breweries buried in snow are said to gain a natural insulating effect from it, a tradition of slow, low-temperature fermentation built around that climate.