Have you ever heard of Kiritanpo? Kiritanpo is a traditional food of Akita Prefecture that consists of crushed rice that is wrapped around a cedar rod and roasted, and then removed from the rod and cut so that it is easier to eat.
It is said that the food was developed by loggers of cedar trees that were secluded in the mountains who used rice that was leftover at mountain huts.
When left on the rod, this food is called “tanpo,” and is eaten after roasting and topping with miso.
The version that is cut is officially called “kiritanpo,” from the Japanese word for cut (kiri).
One of the most common ways of eating kiritanpo is to eat it in a kiritanpo nabe (hot pot), consisting of a chicken broth soup with chicken, burdock, maitake mushroom, green onion, and Japanese parsley with kiritanpo.
It is particularly delicious to eat this dish together with sake that is also made from rice.
It should also be noted that while we are referring to tanpo as if it were one type of food, there is considerable variation in the size, the degree of roasting, and the hardness of tanpo depending on the location. Tanpo from the birthplace of tanpo, Odate, are thick and fully roasted so that they don’t come apart when put in a hot pot.
Kiritanpo nabe is so popular in Akita Prefecture that it almost always features in coming-of-age, marriage, burial, and other ceremonial occasions.
The flavor differs depending on the household.
While there are restaurants in Tokyo that offer kiritanpo nabe and I often eat at these restaurants because I am originally from Akita, the flavor somehow tastes overly formal for me and makes me miss the kiritanpo nabe from my family’s home.
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