🍲 Kujira no harihari nabe

This nabe combines whale meat, which was once a familiar food for the common people, and potherb mustard, which has been cultivated mainly in the Kansai region since ancient times. The whale soup stock is mixed with the potherb mustard and is very tasty. It is said to have originated at Tokuya, a whale restaurant established in 1967 in Sennichimae, Osaka, and has been loved by Osaka residents as a winter delicacy. It is said that the name "hari-hari-nabe" comes from the sound of hari-hari-hari when eating potherb mustard. Whale meat is now a luxury item, but when whaling was popular in Japan, it was one of the most inexpensive meats available and was a familiar source of protein for the common people. The proximity to Taiji in Wakayama Prefecture, one of the largest whaling bases in Japan, made the distribution of whale meat in Osaka very prosperous in the past, and a culinary culture using whale meat flourished. However, since the cessation of commercial whaling in the 1980s, whale meat has become difficult to obtain and is now increasingly substituted with other meats such as pork (commercial whaling will resume in 2019).