Nara – where the capital was located in from the late 600s to the end of 1200s.
Kakinoha Zushi (Sushi)
Many of you might have never seen this kind of Sushi before, but this is also eaten in Japan.
It is a sliced fish on sushi rice wrapped with a leaf of persimmon, invented in Edo era to keep it fresh since persimmon leaves is effective to kill virus. It was only Mackerel though, they started makng it with salmon from Meiji era. Some shops sell it more variety of fish on top.
Asuka Nabe
Asuka Nabe is a hot pot which has been eaten for 1300 years! There are seasonal vegetables and chicken with chicken broth, miso, soy sauce, sugar, and milk. It is rare to put milk on it beside it’s “Milk hot pot”.
It’s popular in winter to warm you up.
I personally don’t like milk, so i have never tried it to be honest.
Miwa Soumen Noodle
Somen noodle looks like thin version of Udon, and it is from Miwa, Sakurai City, Nara.
There used to have 4 ranks of Soumen noodle by its thinness.
- Kamisugi: thinnest and finest
- Odamaki: thicker than Kamisugi, premium
- Mizugaki: thicker than Odamaki, good
- Homare: thickest, normal Miwa Soumen
Miwa Soumen Kumiai Official Site: https://www.miwasoumen-kumiai.com/
Cha Gayu
Cha Gayu is rice porridge made with tea.
Cha = Tea
Gayu = Rice porridge
It has a long history as it was eaten in 701-756 already.
Nara Duke (Pickle)
This is Nara style pickle. They pickle vegetables in salt first, and cover them with Sake Kasu (Sake lees). It was very precious preserved food in Nara. They found there was a bill for this pickle of gourd, wax gourd (Winter melon), eggplant in 927 (it was a different name at the time).
Noted that you might be driving in drunk after eating a big amount of Nara duke due to Sake Kasu.
Yamato Yasai (Vegetable)
There are some vegetable from Nara called Yamato Yasai.
Yasai = vegetable
And there are Gobo, Daikon(Japanese Radish), Cucumber, Eggplant, and many more!
The pic above is one of traditional Yamato Yasai, Iwai Daikon, very thin like 3cm wide. They use it for Ozouni for New Year’s Day.
Nara Prefecture Official Site: http://www.pref.nara.jp/yamato_yasai/
Persimmon
The second most persimmon is produced in Nara. Not only they use leaves for Kakinoha zushi (above), they also make tea from leaves from persimmon, snacks like persimmon cake, persimmon wafer, dried persimmon, and so on.
Kuzukiri
Kuzukiri is not from Nara (there are various theories), but also often eaten in Nara. There is a famous restaurant found in 1870 and others which also have history over 150 years, so you can say that a lot of people have been enjoying Kuzukiri for years.
I found that the foods from Nara is healthy, and very traditional. I have been to Nara for many times, but still i have a lot to try to eat 🙂
