Oden

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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.

Unlike most one pot dishes, ingredients can be added at any time. 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 50 yen.

[edit] Regional variations

In Nagoya, it may be called Kantō-ni (関東煮) and soy sauce is used as a dipping sauce.

In Kansai area they are sometimes called Kanto-daki (関東煮 or 関東炊き) and tend to be stronger flavoured than the lighter Kantō version.

Oden in Shizuoka use a dark coloured broth flavoured with beef stock and dark soy sauce, and all ingredients are skewered. Dried and ground fish (sardine, mackerel, or skipjack tuna) 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 the udon.

In Taiwan, the dish is called Oren/Olen (黑輪) in the Taiwanese language. Besides the more traditional ingredients, olen also uses many local ingredients, such as pork meat balls and blood puddings. More recently, oden is offered in convenience stores and is known as Guandongzhu (Kuantung-chu; 関東煮) in Mandarin.

[edit] List of Popular Ingredients

• Boiled eggs
• Chikuwabu - gluten tubes. Popular in Kantō, virtually unknown elsewhere.
• Sliced daikon
• Suji - beef tendons
• Ito konnyaku
• Konnyaku
• Carrot
• Shiitake
• Kabocha - Japanese squash
• Potato
• Tsukune - fish or meat balls
• Octopus
• Tebichi - pig trotters, only in Okinawa
• Tofu products:
  • Ganmodoki - fried balls of tofu mixed with grated vegetables
  • Atsuage - deep fried tofu
  • Tofu - mainly in Kansai, usually seared
• Surimi products:
  • Bakudan - boiled egg wrapped in surimi
  • Chikuwa - thick tubes of surimi
  • Gobomaki - boiled gobo (greater burdock root) wrapped in surimi
  • Hanpen
  • Ikamaki - squid wrapped in surimi
  • Kamaboko
  • Shinjoage - fried seafood paste

[edit] Anime

• There is an anime on NHK called Odenkun featuring the ingredients of oden as characters and using the voice talents of Yoshinori Fujita and Rika Komatsu.

• In the anime Princess Nine, the main character helps out in her mother's oden shop; one of the American DVDs features a step-by-step guide to making oden as one of the disc extras.

• In episode 5 of xxxHolic, Watanuki Kimihiro visits an oden vendor run by a fox spirit (kitsune) and his son.

• In episode 6 of El Hazard: Alternate World, Nanami Jinnai sets up an oden stand in Creteria.

• In the JDrama, Akihabara@DEEP, the otaku are infatuated with cans of premade oden.

• In the episode 13 of Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori, Wanyuudou runs an oden shop in order to investigate on the client.

• In One Piece: The Movie (movie 1), supporting character Ganzo runs an oden shop, and his dream is to make the most delicious pot of oden the world has ever known. The villain of the movie maliciously spills said pot, but Luffy honors Ganzo by eating the food off of the ground.