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Oden ｜ Our Regional Cuisines

  • Tokyo Prefecture

    Oden

Oden

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  • Main lore areas

    All over Tokyo

  • Main ingredients used

    Bonito flakes, kelp, daikon radish, potatoes, eggs, konnyaku, shirataki , fried tofu, chikuwabu, hanpen, several kinds of fish paste such as ganmo

  • History/origin/related events

    Oden is a dish in which various ingredients called "tane" such as Satsuma-age, daikon radish, konnyaku, and chikuwabu are cooked in a broth made from dried bonito flakes and kelp, and seasonings such as soy sauce are added.
    The origin of oden is said to be tofu dengaku, in which tofu cut in the shape of a spur is skewered and baked. Oden" is said to have been a wives' term used by court ladies, who added "o" to "dengaku" to make it more polite, and omitted "raku" to become "oden". Dengaku" originally referred to a musical dance performed to the rhythm of flutes and drums to pray for a good harvest. The name "dengaku-mai" came from the resemblance of the tofu cut into clapperboard shapes to the dengaku dance. The dengakumai is still practiced today in Tenryu Ward, Hamamatsu City, as "Nishiura Dengaku Takasoku Mododoki" (dengaku dance in Nishiura).
    In the Edo period, dengaku was a popular side dish for the common people, made by skewering tofu or konnyaku and baking them with miso paste. After the modern era, stewed oden became widespread. In the Kansai region, stewed oden is called Kanto nimono (Kanto taki) to distinguish it from the original oden. Today, oden is popular as a winter side dish because of its simplicity and the presence of fish paste, daikon radish, kelp, etc., and oden with distinctive ingredients are spreading in different regions. In Tokyo, oden is characterized by the inclusion of chikuwabu.

  • Opportunities and times of eating habits

    Oden is usually eaten from fall to winter because it is a stewed dish. There are long-established oden restaurants in Tokyo that serve oden year-round.

  • How to eat

    Oden is stewed with dozens of ingredients in a broth made from dried bonito flakes and kelp, and served with mustard if desired.

  • Efforts for Preservation and Succession

    When the fall and winter seasons arrive, oden sets are sold in supermarkets, and households stew oden in their own way. Oden pots are also readily available at convenience stores next to the checkout counters. In addition, "Otako Honten," "Otafuku," and "Takohachi," which are famous as the orthodox school of Kanto oden, continue to offer and preserve the taste of Edo oden.

RECIPE

Ingredients (For 2 persons)

  • Dashi stock 1,000ml
  • [Dashi stock] Water
  • [Dashi stock] Dashi kelp 1 piece
  • [Dashi stock] dried bonito flakes Appropriate amount
  • [Dashi stock] Sake 2 tbsp.
  • [Dashi stock] Mirin 2 tbsp.
  • [Dashi stock] dark soy sauce 2 tbsp.
  • Daikon radish 1／4
  • konnyaku 1／2
  • shirataki 1／2 bag
  • Ganmo 2 or 3 pieces
  • Chikuwabu 2 to 3 sticks
  • hanpen 2 pieces
  • eggs 4
  • Potatoes 2

How to cook

  • 1. Peel daikon radish thickly and cut into 2 cm pieces. Boil daikon radish and konnyaku for about 20 minutes. Boil the eggs for 10 minutes in winter or 8 minutes in summer, and turn them into boiled eggs.

  • 2. Cut chikuwabu diagonally into bite-size pieces, and cut potato into 1／4 pieces. Cut hanpen into triangles.

  • 3. Make dashi stock. Put the kelp in water and heat. When it starts to boil, take out the kelp, add dried bonito flakes, turn off the heat, and wait for 2 minutes. After that, take out the dried bonito flakes, add sake, mirin, and dark soy sauce and heat again.

  • 4. Add the dashi stock and ingredients to a deep pot and simmer for about 30 minutes.

  • 5. Turn off the heat and allow the flavors to fully infuse. If the temperature drops, warm it over low heat before eating.

Recipes vary depending on the region and home.

Contact

Food Cultures Office, Overseas Market Development and Food Cultures Division, Food Industry Affairs Bureau, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries

Tel:+81-3-3502-5516

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