Mito Makes Reiwa Versions of Edo Lord’s Recipes; Local, Modern Spin Given to Edo-Period Dishes

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:29 JST, January 24, 2025

MITO — The Ibaraki prefectural government and others are creating “Reiwa-era versions” of dishes from “Shokusai-roku (Record of food variety), a collection of recipes left behind by Tokugawa Nariaki, the ninth lord of the Mito domain in Edo-period. Some of the dishes were unveiled at an event held on Thursday.

“Shokusai-roku” contains about 300 late Edo-period recipes, which have been analyzed by a research group led by Ibaraki University Professor Masaya Araki.

The prefectural government came up with the idea of getting chefs to create new specialty dishes using food produced in the prefecture, such as mackerel and mallard duck, to reproduce the dishes. Eleven talented chefs from the prefecture have been working on the project since October based on a modern translation of the book.

At the event, eight chefs presented nine dishes of Japanese, Western and Chinese cuisine. Chef Yasuaki Kobayashi of Motoyu Yamada-ya Ryokan presented “ukeiri tofu no shiyo,” a combination of grated yam, tofu and fish. Kobayashi combined grated ayu (sweetfish) meat with tofu and floated it in a broth with grated turnip to represent “shiga,” a phenomenon that occurs in winter on the Kuji River, where sherbet-like ice flows on the surface.

Chef Takaaki Otsu of Restaurant Otsu created a modern version of gobo mochi (rice cake with burdock root), a dish in which burdock root and glutinous rice are kneaded together and deep fried. The roasted meat of Hitachinokuni wild mallard was served with gobo-mochi mixed with the mallard meat and covered in a sauce made from mallard offal and other ingredients. “I was surprised at the great potential of Shokusai-roku,” Araki said.

Jiali Jiang, 33, an American, was also invited to the event. She said that the cuisines were creative and tasty, and that historical resource should resonate with foreigners as well.

Each of the restaurants will continue to make improvements and consider adding the dishes to their menus.