🍱 Nara Ae

"Nara-ae" is a dish that uses Nara's specialty, "Nara-zuke", and is a popular dish even among children. There is a mention of "Kasuzukeuri" in the wooden tablets excavated from the Nara Palace Site, but at that time, sake was more like doburoku (unrefined sake), and it is believed that it was a mixture of vegetables and sediment at the bottom of the container, different from the current sake kasu (sake lees). Nara, known as the birthplace of refined sake, had abundant delicious "sake kasu(=sake lees)", leading to the development of the method for making "kasuzuke(=sake marinate)" from ancient times. However, until the Edo period, it was considered a luxurious item that did not reach the mouths of common people. It is said that "Nara-zuke" was presented to Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu, receiving favorable reviews, but these "Nara-zuke" were likely made in temples along with sake. In the Edo period, Itoya Sosen, a Chinese medicine practitioner in Nara, started selling "sake kasu"-pickled white melon to townspeople, marking the first time it entered the mouths of the general public. Subsequently, with travelers visiting Nara spreading the name of "Nara-zuke" nationwide, it has become synonymous with "kasuzuke" (sake marinate).