Episode 42: Local Cuisine Using Konjac [Kansai Edition] Dengaku / Nara

Episode 42: Local Cuisine Using Konjac [Kansai Edition] Dengaku / Nara Part 4

This time, I'll introduce some local dishes from Nara that use konjac.

Upon researching, I came across "Dengaku." Dengaku is a dish in which various ingredients are skewered, grilled, and then coated with miso paste. Its distinctive feature is the use of miso paste that is blended with sugar and mirin, and flavored with yuzu citrus and sansho leaves.

Upon researching the origins of Dengaku, I discovered it's related to a traditional performing art called "Dengaku-mai."
From around the mid-Heian period, there was a custom in rural areas of performing a dance called Dengaku-mai, in which people would dance in the rice fields to the sound of drums, especially during the rice planting season.
The dancers, dressed in white hakama and colored jackets, dance on a single pole, and their appearance resembles a tofu dish made of white tofu topped with miso and grilled on a skewer, which is why it is said to have come to be called "miso dengaku" or "dengaku."

According to Tomioka Nori's book "Yamato Food Culture: In Search of the Roots of Japanese Food," dengaku originated during the Muromachi period.
According to the book, dengaku is a dish made by skewering seasonal vegetables such as taro, konjac, and eggplant, smearing miso paste on them, and grilling them over a farmhouse hearth.
He also said that he eats tofu dengaku, commonly known as "Otsugomori Dengaku," on New Year's Eve.
This dish, also known as dengakuyaki or miso dengaku, uses tofu and miso from all over the country and is enjoyed at home as a local dish in each region.

reference

List of Japanese regional dishes
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E3%81%AE%E9%83%B7%E5%9C%9F%E6%96%99%E7%90%86%E4%B8%80%E8%A6%A7

Dengaku (traditional performing art)
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%94%B0%E6%A5%BD