🍱 Stir-boiled Wakagobou (new burdock root)

This local dish is a specialty of Yao City made by stir-frying and then boiling deep-fried tofu and wakagobou. Wakagobou is a leafy burdock plant grown mainly in Yao city, and is popular as an ingredient that represents spring since it is harvested in the beginning of the season. Unlike ordinary gobou (burdock root), where only the root is eaten, the leaves, stalk, and new roots of this vegetable are edible. It is known for having a pleasant aroma and crispy texture, and has a high nutritional value containing rutin, iron, and dietary fiber. Gobou is said to have been introduced as a medicinal herb from China in the Heian period, and its cultivation spread as a specialty of Yao City during the Edo period. Shirojikuya Gobou, a leafy variety of the burdock root, came to be cultivated in the middle of the Showa period, and was a variety where the leaves, stems, and roots could all be used. Wakagobou is used in a variety of dishes such as kakiage and pasta, but it is normally stir-boiled.