What is Mamebu Soup? A detailed explanation of the flavor featured in the NHK drama series "Amachan" [Kuji City, Iwate Prefecture]

in the first episode of "Amachan," which was broadcast as an NHK drama series in 2013 tastes mamebu soup

In this article, we will take a closer look at mamebu, which has suddenly become more well-known after being introduced in Amachan as "a strange food that makes it hard to tell whether it's a side dish or a snack."

---

What is Mamebu Soup?

Mamebu soup is a local dish from Yamagata-cho (formerly Yamagata Village) in Kuji City, Iwate Prefecture. It is made by adding burdock, carrots, fried tofu, shimeji mushrooms, kanpyo (dried gourd), and grilled tofu to a broth made from dried sardines and kelp, seasoning it with soy sauce, and then which are dumplings made from wheat flour wrapped around walnuts and brown sugar , and simmering it.

Mamebu is said to have originated in the Edo period when the shogunate issued a notice to the Nanbu domain that "peasants should not eat noodles or soba noodles" in preparation for poor harvests, and so as a substitute food, people wrapped walnuts in flour and made them into dumplings

about the origin of the name Mamebu , including that it comes from the fact that the dumplings resemble Temarifu

Also, the mamebu are made larger for celebrations and smaller for misfortunes, and the stock is made only from kelp, making it a vegetarian dish, which is why it is a distinctive dish that has been eaten on both "celebratory" and "impure" occasions

---

What is Kuji Mamebu Room, an organization that aims to revitalize Kuji City through Mamebu

Kuji Mamebu Room is an organization run by volunteers who want to debut mamebu soup nationwide and contribute to revitalizing the local area.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kuji City Hometown Experience Learning Association (@kujishi.furusato.taiken)

Kuji Mamebu Stable's name includes the word "stay" (room) to resemble a sumo stable, and so their activities are referred to as "tours." You can follow their latest activities on Facebook and their blog

What is unique about the Kuji Mamebu Room is that it is involved in a wide range of educational activities about mamebu, from serving mamebu soup throughout Iwate Prefecture to raising awareness of its flavor, to hosting a Mamebu Food Festival and responding to hearings by the Agency for Cultural Affairs

Thanks to the activities of Kuji Mamebu Room, Mamebu first exhibited at the National B-1 Grand Prix in 2011 , and won fifth place at the Toyokawa competition

The B-1 Grand Prix's B-class gourmet food competition is not limited to local cuisine, but the fact that Mamebu Soup was able to win an award proves that it is a flavor loved by a wide variety of people, not just those from Iwate Prefecture

Starting in 2021, Kuji Mamebu Room has been holding the "Mamebu Future Inheritance Course"

In July 2021, the company applied for and was selected to participate in the Agency for Cultural Affairs' "Food Culture Story" Creation and Dissemination Model Project, with the aim of making mamebu a national intangible folk cultural asset.

Mamebu will likely continue to be passed down as a dish that connects Iwate Prefecture's precious food culture in history to the future

• Reference: Facebook "Kuji Mamebu Room"
• Reference: Kuji Mamebu Room Official Blog
• Reference: Agency for Cultural Affairs "FY2021 'Food Culture Story' Creation and Dissemination Model Project"

---

summary

Mamebu soup is a local dish that originates in Yamagata-cho, Kuji City, Iwate Prefecture. It is made by adding vegetables and tofu to a broth made from dried sardines and kelp, seasoning it with soy sauce, and then adding mamebu, a type of flour dumpling wrapped in walnuts and brown sugar, and simmering it. It has won an award at the B-1 Grand Prix and is aiming to become an intangible folk cultural asset, and we learned that it continues to be loved by the people of Iwate Prefecture today

If you visit Iwate, be sure to try some mamebu

---