🍲 Tsubon-jiru Soup

"Tsubon-jiru" is a soup full of finely-chopped ingredients such as chicken, kamakobo fish cakes, and root vegetables like taro, burdock, carrot, and daikon radish. The ingredients are simmered in anchovy stock and flavored with soy sauce, with the stock taking on the delicate umami flavor of the vegetables. Originally included in kaiseki banquet cuisine served at autumn festivals in the Hitoyoshi Kuma region, tsubon-jiru is now also made at New Year's, festivals, and other such events. It is an indispensable dish particularly for celebratory occasions and is said to be prepared with an odd number of ingredients, such as seven or nine. While kaiseki banquet cuisine is served in a mix of shallow and deep dishes, the name comes from the fact that the soup was served in deep bowl a lid, hence the name “tsubo no jiru (soup in a jar)" which was changed to “tsubon-jiru." Each region and household has its own stock, ingredients, and cutting method. For example, grilled tofu is added in the Hitoyoshi district (Okunchi-san), thick deep-fried tofu in Asagiri Town (Hachiman-san) in Kuma County, and thin deep-fried tofu slices in Taraki Town (Ebisu-san). In addition to anchovies, soup stock made from dried shiitake mushrooms, local free-range chicken, and grilled shrimp is also passed down through the generations.