B-grade gourmet food

Mamebu soup (1)

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

an NHK serial drama broadcast in 2013"Amachan,"in the first episode ofmamebu souptastes

This article will"Amachan" as "a food that's neither clearly a side dish nor a snack."provide a detailed explanation of mamebu, a food that suddenly gained popularity after being featured

What is Mamebu Soup?

Mamebu soup isa local dish from the Yamagata-cho area (formerly Yamagata Village) in Kuji City, Iwate Prefecture.It is made by adding burdock root, carrots, fried tofu, shimeji mushrooms, dried gourd strips, and grilled tofu to a broth made from dried sardines and kelp, seasoning it with soy sauce, and thenwhich are dumplings made from wheat flour filled with walnuts and brown sugar, and simmering it all together.

Mamebu soup (2)
Mamebu soup

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

Mamebu
Mamebu contents (walnuts and brown sugar)

about the origin of the name "Mamebu," including that it comes from the fact that the dumplingstemarifu (a type of wheat gluten used in traditional Japanese cooking), and that it was named with the wish that the person would be diligent and hardworking. However, the exact reason remains unclear.

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

Mamebuthe group aiming to revitalize Kuji City throughKuji Mamebu Heya,What is

Kuji Mamebu Roomis an organization run by volunteers who want to introduce mamebu soup to the whole country and contribute to the revitalization of the local community.

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

the All-Japan B-1 Grand Prix, a joint event of local gourmet food groups across Japanits first appearance in 2011 at, and5th place at the Toyokawa competitionwon

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

At the Kuji Mamebu Room, since 2021,"Mamebu Future Inheritance Course"we have been holding the

Furthermore, in July 2021,they applied for and were selected for the Agency for Cultural Affairs' "Food Culture Story" creation and dissemination model project in order to have Mamebu designated as a national intangible folk cultural property.

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

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

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