Keeping Warm in Japan During the Winter Season
Japan can get quite cold and snowy in the winter, especially up north in the Tohoku region. However, even down south in Kagoshima or Okinawa, the following foods are commonplace in Japan during the winter season. So, next time you visit Japan in the winter, make sure you check out these great foods to eat.
Nabemono
Nabemono are hot pot dishes, and there are many different varieties. Since hotpot dishes are mostly just warm soups or stews, they make for great foods to eat in Japan during the winter season. There are more kinds of nabemono than just the three listed below; however, oden, shabu shabu, and sukiyaki are great examples of the kinds of dishes you should try on your next visit to Japan during the winter.
Oden
Oden (おでん) is a traditional and simple Japanese stew. Common ingredients in oden are fried tofu, fish cakes, daikon, boiled eggs, konnyaku and other various vegetables. The broth is light and made from a soy-flavored dashi.
Shabu Shabu
Shabu Shabu is a dish that is comprised mainly of meat, vegetables, and tofu which are all placed into hot simmering broth to cook. The food pieces are cooked and eaten individually rather than dumping them all in at once. The broth is light; so once cooked, the ingredient is removed and eaten with a dipping sauce. The meat is thinly sliced and the vegetables are bite-sized so that they don’t take long to cook.
Sukiyaki
Sukiyaki is another type of hot pot dish consisting of thinly sliced beef, scallions, fried tofu, mushrooms, leafy vegetables and glass noodles made from konnyaku. The ingredients are cooked in a shallow iron pot with a sweet soy sauce broth which is heartier in flavor than the broth in shabu shabu. After they’ve been cooked, the ingredients are then dipped into a bowl of raw egg and eaten.
Yakiimo
Yakiimo (焼き芋) or literally “bake potato” are baked sweet potatoes that can be found everywhere throughout Japan during the winter season. Japanese sweet potatoes have reddish-purple skin with golden flesh and are slowly cooked until tender and sweetly delicious. You’ll find them cooked, packaged, and sitting in little heater stands to keep the yakiimo warm. From groceries stores to outdoor food stalls, yakiimo are everywhere and are a staple of Japanese winter foods.
Mochi
Mochi, also known as Japanese rice cake, is made from glutinous rice that’s been pounded into a paste and typically shaped into small mochi balls. The texture of mochi is soft and stretchy. While mochi is eaten year-round, it is still considered a traditional Japanese New Year food. There are numerous types of dishes made with mochi, but kagami mochi, ozoni and kinako mochi are New Year specific.
Kagami mochi is more decorative with religious significance in Shintoism. Traditionally, it consists of two round mochi stacked on top of each other and a daidai (bitter Japanese orange) with a leaf attached on top.
Ozoni is a type of soup with mochi rice crackers. Mochi rice crackers are made by cutting mochi into rectangles or circles and then either grilling or boiling them depending on the region of Japan it’s made in.
Lastly, kinako mochi is simply mochi covered in kinako (roasted soybean flour) and sugar.
Oshiruko/zenzai
Oshiruko is a type of Japanese dessert that you’ll see often during the winter season. Azuki (red beans) are crushed up into a porridge-like soup and served with either mochi or shiratama dango (dumplings made from glutinous rice flour).
There are two styles of Oshiruko depending on whether you use tsubuan (red bean paste with chunks of beans) or koshian (red bean paste that is smooth with no chunks). In the Kanto region, oshiroku that is made with koshian or tsubuan style pastes are both considered oshiruko. However, in the Kansai region you’ll find that only the koshian style is called oshiruko and tsubuan style is called zenzai. This isn’t a perfect way to differentiate the name of these two similar dishes as some prefectures and local areas might refer to them differently or have their own style of how they’re made. However, it’s a close approximation and even many Japanese people have trouble actually telling the difference between oshiruko and zenzai.
Amazake
While not technically a food, amazake (meaning sweet sake) is a unique beverage and is typically drunk in Japan during the winter season. Amazake is sweet and only a little alcoholic or it can be made to have no alcohol. Some Japanese people even use it as a cure for hangovers.
To make it non-alcoholic, it’s a similar process to making sake with the exception of adding yeast. Yeast turns sugar into alcohol when making sake, so the amazake making process stops before adding yeast. The slightly alcoholic version is made by taking sake lees (left over solids from making sake) and mixing them with hot water. Both versions aren’t clear like sake and are instead cloudy and almost like porridge. The cloudiness is from the sake lees which aren’t filtered out in the non-alcoholic version and are obviously added back in to hot water in the alcoholic version.
Keeping Warm With Tasty Foods
While this list isn’t exhaustive of all of the delicious foods that can be eaten in Japan during the winter season, it’s a good spread of some of the unique dishes on offer. Next time you’re walking around Japan on a cold winter’s day, try keeping warm with some yakiimo or amazake!
