🍱 Ego no Sumiso-ae

The name "Ego" comes from boiled and kneaded seaweed called "egogusa," and it is a regional cuisine passed down throughout Niigata Prefecture. Egogusa is said to have been brought to mountain villages in Shinshu by peddlers from fishing villages along the Sea of Japan, and "Ego" is mainly eaten along the "Shio no Michi" (Salt Road) extending from the Daihoku area to the Nagano Nishiyama area (Shinshushinmachi, Ogawa, Nakajo, Naniai, etc.). In the days before refrigeration, well-preserved seafood was a valuable source of nutrients that were often deficient in the land-locked Nagano Prefecture. Ego is thought to have been eaten towards the end of the Taisho era, and it was transported over several days from the coast of Niigata Prefecture. In the Iiyama region, their version of "Ego" is simply boiled and dissolved. It is eaten in many areas excluding the southern regions, and is eaten with karashi (mustard) soy sauce, karashi sumiso (vinegar miso), plain karashi, etc. In Kijimadaira and Azumino (near Toyoshinaminamihotaka), it is called "Igo" and is sun-bleached prior to boiling and dissolving, then eaten with sansho (Japanese pepper) miso, bonito flake soy sauce, wasabi soy sauce, karashi soy sauce, etc. Egogusa brought from Niigata Prefecture was often sold out in the Hokushin area, and rarely reached the larger cities of Nagano and Matsumoto. This is said to be the reason why it spread and took root mainly in the northern part of Nagano Prefecture. As a regional cuisine of Niigata Prefecture,some areas have a custom of boiling and dissolving Egogusa in the original color, and other areas wet the Ego and dry it in the sun until it becomes white, then boil and dissolve before eating. It has been passed down as a meal to serve during festive events.