🍱 Shio-Kujira-Jiru

"Shio-Kujira-Jiru" (salted whale soup) is a traditional nourishing meal to survive the hot inland summers. It is said that this dish was created to prepare for the hot summer by boiling salted whale, which was a handy as a source of animal protein in mountainous areas, and summer vegetables together. Salted whale is the fatty flesh of the whale, with its skin preserved in salt. Vegetables used for the dish are delicious seasonal vegetables such as new potatoes, eggplants, and green beans, which are harvested in the summer in the region. In the Murayama area, it is also called "Iruka-jiru." In the town of Oe-cho in the Murayama area, "Iruka-jiru" was often made during the summer vacation when the children's association in the town held gatherings. Mothers brought vegetables and other ingredients from their homes and boiled them in a large pot and served them. Ingredients always include salted whale, and new potatoes. Other ingredients that are always included are “Aomizuna”, a wild green vegetable that grows taller in the summer but can still be eaten tender if peeled, and “Natsuna” (Hudan-sou), a perennial herb, that grows in the fields during the hot summer months. In the Mogami area, the "Mizu" of wild vegetables used in "Shio-Kujira-Jiru" is called "Mongirimizu-jiru" because it is torn off by hand to allow the flavor to soak in well.