🍲 Ebi Daikon (Simmered Daikon radish with Shrimp)

This is a dish in winter when it starts frosting in the south region of the prefecture, where river shrimp can be caught once it’s getting cold. Not only ‘Ebi Daikon,’ ‘Sekihan’ (rice cooked with red beans), ‘Kenchin-jiru’ (miso soup with vegetables and meat) and ‘Kinpira Gobou’ (shaved burdocks and carrots fried with soy sauce and sugar) were served at Water God Festival, one of the occasions that relatives and children living away from their parents get together. Many river shrimp were sold at peddlers in Namai area and Shiratori area in the south-west of Oyama City. The shrimp turns red when cooked, and with the combination of daikon radish’s white, this dish was served at the auspicious occasion as a lucky dish. River shrimp used in ‘Ebi Daikon’ is also called ‘Sasa-ebi’ (Bamboo grass shrimp). There is nowhere for shrimp to keep off the cold once grasses along the river die out. People bundle bamboo leaves and set them about 1m away from the river side to let shrimp come there. Then they catch shrimp with a net when shrimp come closer. ‘Ebi Daikon,’ simmered river shrimp and daikon radish until the daikon radish gets melting-soft, was one of treats. River shrimp is a general name for shrimp inhabiting rivers and lakes, and it is cooked to tempura, ‘tsukudani’ (preserved food cooked with soy sauce and sugar) and ‘nitsuke’ (boiled with soy sauce). Sakura shrimp is often replaced with river shrimp these days.