Hot Pot

The most favored winter dish in Japan is nabe that many things are cooked together in a pot and shared with others.

It is very typical Japanese food which keeps our body warm and helps our body healthy by the way in which it is used. I ate a hot pot yesterday because I had a bad stomach ache. Japanese nabe has a lot of vegetables and we can cook whatever our favorite flavor.  It has a variety of cooking so we can choose the flavors depend on the condition of our body or your mood.

As I said there are different kinds of hot pot used local foodstuff in Japan, so in this time I would like to introduce some of them.

鍋のラインナップ ●北海道・・・・・　石狩鍋、三平汁 ●東北　 ・・・・・　芋煮、きりたんぽ鍋、しょっつる鍋 ●関東　・・・・・・　おでん、ねぎま鍋、すき焼き、深川鍋、あんこう鍋 ●中部　・・・・・・　静岡おでん、ほうとう鍋、名古屋風おでん、鮭のっぺい、かにちり ●近畿　・・・・・・　はりはり鍋、うどんすき、鯛の明石鍋、飛鳥鍋 ●中国・四国・・　土手鍋、ふぐちり ●九州・沖縄・・　水炊き、だんご汁、もつ鍋、さつま汁、沖縄風おでん

This is Japanese map which tells which areas have what kinds of hot pot. Im sorry I just found Japanese one, not written by English.

Hokkaido area colored orange is famous for “Ishikarinabe”. The reason why it is called “Ishikari” is the area where this hot pot is eaten has a river called Ishikari, so Ishikari nabe is named after the river. Besides this, the hot pot has salmons which are captured in Ishikari river.

This hot pot is bean paste (miso) flavor and used lots of vegetables and sea foods. It is exactly local hot pot in Hokkaido.

Tohoku area colored brown is famous for “Imoni” and “Kiritannpo”.

This one is called Imoni just because it is used Japanese potatoes which are sticky paste and a little bit different from potatoes we usually eat. It is soy souse flavor and I guess it is familiar to our Japanese tastes.

This is a Kiritanpo hot pot and Kiritannpo is local foodstuff in Akita prefecture. You may don’t know what Kiritanpo is. It is made of rice and it is a circular in shape which is pierced in the center as you can see it front side. I tried it once when I went to Akita. When I first saw it, I thought it was rice cake but it wasn’t.

 

What I tried is this kipitannpo, not hot pot. But it was really nice and I didn’t feel like eating rice.

Kanto area colored green is famous for “Oden”, “Sukiyaki”, “Ankounabe” and others.

This hot pot is really famous all over Japan which is called “Oden”. I think it is also familiar to foreign people. As you can see it has a lot of ingredients which are eggs, Japanese radish, fish minced one, dried kelp or you can put whatever you want into it. In addition this, we can easily have it in convenience stores and surprisingly it is tasty! The tastes are a bit different in each convenience stores, so if you tried them all, you can teach me which one is the best!

Tyubu area colored light green is famous for “Houtounabe”.

It is famous hot pot in Yamanashi prefecture. It has pumpkins, noodles and other lots of vegetables. I tried it once and I noticed that this noodle is not common one we usually eat. It was thinner than I had known. I never tried it before so I was kind of surprised but it was really yummy.

Kinki area colored red is famous for “Harihari nabe”

I don’t know why it is called “Harihari” but it used to cook with whale flesh and famous in Kansai area. Ingredients are pork in stead of whale flesh, tofu, radish, mushrooms. It looks the way of cooking is quite easy but I guess the taste would be nice.

Shikoku, Tyugoku are famous for “Dote nabe”.

It is famous in Hiroshima prefecture. You can see soy beans paste is put on the edge of hot pot and we eat it by disolving gradually. This hot pot has oysters, tofu and lots of vegetables. I’ve never seen like it before. We usually eat soy beans or souse flavored ones which are mixed altogether but this Dote nabe is not cooked together, soy beans paste and water. It is unfamiliar hot pot even for Japanese like me.

Kyusyu area is famous for “Motsu nabe”.

I love it! I really love it the best of all hot pots. I didn’t know that Motsu nabe came from Kyusyu area. The feature of this hot pot is cooking with Motsu(I don’t know how to say it in English, sorry) and lots of vegetables. I tried it many times and every time I finished eating it, I eat it as porridge of rice using remaining soup. It is sooooooo yummy, I highly recommend it!

This is all I wanted to introduce hot pots throughout Japan.

If you know other hot pot that I didn’t mention here, let me know! I love to know what other hot pots are in Japan.