🍱 Mamebujiru

Mamebu-jiru" is a local dish of Yamagata-machi, Kuji City (former Yamagata Village), in which ingredients such as familiar vegetables and baked tofu are simmered in a soy sauce-based soup flavored with dried sardines and kelp dashi, along with "mamebu," flour dumplings with walnuts. It is said that during the Edo period (1603-1867), when bad harvests continued, people ate dumplings made of wheat flour wrapped in walnuts as a substitute for noodles in "Hare no Meal". The origin of the name is said to come from the fact that the dumplings are "the size of a pea" and "resemble mari-fu," or that the name was given to the dumpling with the wish to live a faithful, healthy, and proficient life. The vegetables and other ingredients used in the dumplings vary from region to region and from household to household, but the use of niboshi (dried sardines) and kombu (kelp) for the broth, the taste of soy sauce, and the addition of walnuts to the dumplings are common. Sometimes brown sugar is added to the dumplings, creating a unique taste that allows the saltiness of the soup and the sweetness of the brown sugar to be enjoyed at the same time.