🍱 Jojokiri

The Atsumi Peninsula is a peninsula situated on the eastern side of Aichi Prefecture; it is an area blessed with the natural wonders of the sea and mountains, with the Mikawa Bay in the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The Atsumi Peninsula is affected by the Kuroshio Current off the coast in its temperate climate, length of daylight hours, and numerous days with good weather; it is an environment extremely suited to agriculture. However, it lacked large rivers in the past; there was consistent drought damage, and the poor soil quality could have hardly been called fertile. From the Showa Period on, once the Toyogawa Canal was developed, agriculture developed rapidly, and it became one of the leading agricultural areas in Japan for vegetables and flowers. Jojokiri is a dish passed down from the Meiji Period to farmers in the Atsumi Peninsula with its flourishing agriculture. It is also called "Irago shiruko." Udon noodles are boiled in a broth sweetened with sugar and eaten. It is said that the dish came to be called "jojokiri" from the shape of the thin udon noodles kneaded from flour, which resembles loaches ("dojo" or "jojo"). Because it was eaten in place of a snack during breaks in farm work, it is unique in its sweet finish, since sugar helps relieve tiredness.