Oden

For other uses, see Oden (disambiguation).

Oden

Oden (おでん) is a Japanese winter dish consisting of several ingredients such as boiled eggs, daikon radish, konnyaku, and processed fish cakes stewed in a light, soy-flavoured dashi broth. Ingredients vary according to region and between each household. Karashi (Japanese mustard) is often used as a condiment.

Oden was originally what is now commonly called misodengaku or simply dengaku; konnyaku or tofu was boiled and one ate them with miso. Later, instead of using miso, ingredients were cooked in dashi and oden became popular.

Oden is often sold from food carts, and most Japanese convenience stores have simmering oden pots in winter. Many different kinds of oden are sold, with single-ingredient varieties as cheap as 100 yen.

Regional variations

In Nagoya, it may be called Kantō-ni (関東煮) and soy sauce is used as a dipping sauce. Miso oden is simmered in hatcho-miso broth, which tastes lightly sweet. Konjac and tofu are common ingredients.

In the Kansai area, this dish is sometimes called Kantō-daki (関東煮 or 関東炊き) and tends to be more strongly flavoured than the lighter Kantō version.

Oden in Shizuoka uses a dark coloured broth flavoured with beef stock and dark soy sauce, and all ingredients are skewered. Dried and ground fish (sardine, mackerel, or katsuobushi) and aonori powder (edible seaweed) are sprinkled on top before eating.

Udon restaurants in Kagawa Prefecture in Shikoku almost always offer oden as a side dish, to be eaten with sweet miso while waiting for udon.

In Taiwan, the dish is called heilun or olun (黑輪) in the Taiwanese language. Besides the more traditional ingredients, olun also uses many local ingredients, such as pork meatballs and blood puddings. More recently, oden is offered in convenience stores and is known as guandongzhu (Kuantung-chu; 關東煮) in Mandarin.

In South Korea, odaeng (오뎅) is a street food that's sold from small carts and is served with a spicy soup. It's very common on the streets of South Korea many restaurants that have it on the menu or specialize in it.

Popular ingredients

A variety of oden ingredients

An oden vending machine in Akihabara, Tokyo

• Boiled eggs
• Chikuwabu - gluten tubes. Popular in Kantō, virtually unknown elsewhere.
• Sliced daikon
• Suji - beef tendons
• Ito konnyaku
• Konnyaku
• Konbu
• Carrot
• Shiitake
• Kabocha - Japanese squash
• Cabbage roll
• Potato
• Tsukune - fish or meat balls
• Octopus
• Tebichi - pig's trotters, only in Okinawa
• Tofu products:
  • Ganmodoki - fried balls of tofu mixed with grated vegetables
  • Atsuage - deep fried tofu
  • Kinchaku (巾着, literally "pouch") - pouches of thin deep fried tofu (aburaage) filled with mochi and other ingredients, with the top tied with kanpyō. Also referred to as fukuro (袋, literally "bag").
  • Tofu - mainly in Kansai, usually seared
• Surimi products: - most of them are already deep fried before simmering.
  • Bakudan - boiled egg wrapped in surimi
  • Chikuwa - thick tubes of surimi
  • Gobomaki - boiled gobo (greater burdock, Arctium lappa, root) wrapped in surimi
  • Hanpen
  • Ikamaki - squid wrapped in surimi
  • wiener-maki, or sausage-maki - wiener sausage wrapped in surimi
  • Kamaboko
  • Shinjoage - fried seafood paste

External links

• Bento.com
• Recipe - Setsuko Yoshizuka

Media related to Oden at Wikimedia Commons

• Oden-kun anime web site (Japanese)