Regional food and famous sweets of Nara

Chagayu is rice porridge cooked in roasted green tea or bancha, especially associated with Nara and Wakayama. In Nara it is also called okai-san and...

Kakisuga is Sohonten Kakisuga's trademarked confection: candied yuzu peel forms the core and layers of dried persimmon are rolled tightly around it...

Miwa somen is hand-stretched around Miwa in Sakurai, using repeated twisting, resting, oiling and drying to make exceptionally fine noodles with a...

Asuka nabe cooks chicken, napa cabbage, leek, mushrooms and other vegetables in chicken stock enriched with milk.

Nara chameshi cooks rice in sencha or hojicha infusion with roasted soybeans, producing separate grains, tea aroma and nutty beans.

Nara imobota cooks rice with tubers and mashes them into small sticky dumplings; Ikoma uses taro with kinako or soybean coating.

K

Kuzukiri is a Japanese confection made by heating kudzu starch and water into a clear sheet, cutting it into noodles, chilling it, and dipping it in...

Nyumen serves boiled somen in hot dashi. Around Sakurai and Miwa, Nara's hand-stretched somen region, it is a year-round counterpart to chilled...

Warabi mochi is a soft Japanese sweet made by heating starch traditionally extracted from bracken roots with water and sugar, then serving the set...

Yoshino kakinoha-zushi places thin salt-and-vinegar-cured mackerel or another fish on bite-size vinegared rice, wraps each piece in...

Narazuke begins with salted white melon, cucumber, small watermelon, ginger or other produce, which is moved through fresh sake-lees beds repeatedly...

Meibutsu Mimuro is a monaka made by Shiratamaya Eiju in Miwa, Sakurai. Crisp mochi-rice shells hold kanoko-an that combines smooth and whole-bean...

Yamato zoni combines white-miso broth, round mochi, taro, celebration daikon, carrot, tofu and konnyaku, then moves the mochi to a separate dish of...

Goma-dofu is made by heating and kneading sesame paste, kudzu starch and water, then cooling the glossy mixture until it sets.