Zoni is interesting! Zoni festival with ozoni researcher Hiroko Kasuya
What kind of zoni do you eat in your household?
Our ozoni is made with chicken stock and has decorative pieces of radish and carrots. Bake the rice cakes until lightly browned and dip them in the soup stock.
I've been familiar with this flavor since I was a child, and thought, ``This is zoni!'' However, my notion was easily overturned at the ``Ozoni Festival'' held in Kamakura. .
What I encountered there was a number of ozoni that I had never seen before. Oyster zoni, sweet tofu-like zoni... some even have chawanmushi with rice cake inside!
Hiroko Kasuya, a zoni researcher and representative of Ozoniya Co., Ltd., one of the organizers, told me the following while I was astonished by the wide variety of zoni.
``(Zoni) is different even within the same municipality.All over Japan, families think that their own zoni is normal. There is something completely different about it.”
Ozoni reveals the history, culture, and people's lives of the region. We spoke to Mr. Kasuya about his passion for ozoni and the appeal of the food culture of ozoni.
Mr. Kasuya first became interested in ozoni when he was a junior high school student and moved to Joetsu City, Niigata Prefecture due to his father's job transfer. Until then, her ``normal'' zoni was either sumashi soup with oysters or the white miso and sweet red bean mochi zoni made by her mother, who is from Kagawa Prefecture. However, when he was invited to a friend's house for New Year's, he was surprised to be treated to brown zoni with plenty of bracken and zuiki. I learned that ``normal'' ozoni is different in each region and each household.
Even after entering the workforce, Mr. Kasuya could not forget the shock of that moment. She was busy working as a small and medium-sized company consultant, but in 2009 she enrolled at Women's University of Nutrition and began interviewing people about zoni while studying nutrition. Since two years ago, he has moved his base to Kyushu.
``Right now, I'm walking around Kyushu picking up a grandma (lol). I'm asking her ``Excuse me'' here and there. Unless you really do that, you won't understand the ozoni of that region. I think there may be many "normals" for everyone.
In Tokyo, Natori Zoni is made with greens and chicken. That's why it's komatsuna and chicken, but in Atsugi and Hadano in Kanagawa, it changes to daikon radish, taro, green seaweed, and bonito flakes. It's interesting that they don't necessarily use fish in areas where fish can be caught, but that they place value on ``getting their feet on the ground'' by using root foods such as daikon radish and taro. . ”
I also grew up in Kanagawa Prefecture, and our zoni did not contain green seaweed or bonito flakes. What is ``normal'' for me becomes less ``normal'' when I move a little further away, even within the same prefecture.
For example, even the shape of a rice cake can reveal many different stories. I have also seen on TV that Sekigahara is the dividing line between whether mochi is round or square. Sekigahara is the turning point for various food cultures, and it is generally said that those east of Sekigahara use square mochi, and those west of Sekigahara use round mochi. This is said to be because the Edo Shogunate was established and as the population of Edo increased, mass production of mochi became necessary, so the production method of rolling out the mochi and cutting it all at once became mainstream.
However, in some areas of Kagoshima, square mochi is used. It is said that it originated from the Shimazu clan who stayed in Edo for a long time and brought back square mochi to Kagoshima. The mixture of various histories and fusion with the local culture creates a zoni that is unique to that region and to each family.
Even within one region, there are so many differences that it feels like a waste if we don't have many opportunities to eat ozoni from other regions. For me, ozoni was something I would eat at home during New Year's Day, and I only had a few opportunities to eat it outside of that. That's probably why everyone thinks that their ozoni is ``normal'' and common.
So, I asked Mr. Kasuya, ``Do you have the opportunity to eat ozoni outside of New Year's?''
``I think Asakura City's ``Mushi-Zoni'' is a good model, and there are actually about 10 shops in the area that serve ``Mushi-Zoni'' throughout the year thanks to the efforts of the tourism association. It has become a local specialty. If that happens, people who have traveled to that place will be able to learn about the culture behind it. I think it's because it's home-cooked that it's so unique. Not in the culture of the cook, but in a closed place in the home. I think that's why there are still some things from the past that remain. I think it would be great if I could eat something like this when I travel to various places. ”
Foreign tourists are unaware of the existence of ozoni because it is not served at restaurants. I want to make it so that people from other countries can enjoy it as well. Kasuya's desire to promote and protect Japanese culture is conveyed through his ozoni.
Mr. Kasuya talked about his future activities with a cheerful smile.
``Starting this year, I'm thinking of focusing on food education, or rather, friendship-building activities.Instead of 'picking up grandmothers', which is something I do only by myself, I'm thinking of having the local people themselves listen to the stories of the local grandmothers. I want to create a fun system like this."
Why did this kind of zoni come to be eaten in this area? This story is often known by grandmothers over 90 who know about the culture before gas became widespread. One person cannot travel around the country in detail. Therefore, he expressed his desire to work with local people to pass on knowledge and information about the food culture of ozoni to the next generation.
The 1st Ozoni Festival, which Mr. Kasuya was involved in planning, was a huge success, and by the time I arrived, two of the six types were already sold out.
lineup:
① Hokkaido “Chicken dashi zoni”
② Niigata Prefecture “Shibata Zoni”
③ Ibaraki Prefecture “Hitachiota Zoni”
④ Nara Prefecture “Kinako Zoni”
⑤ Hiroshima Prefecture “Oyster Zoni”
⑥ Fukuoka Prefecture “Asakura Steamed Zoni”
All of them were delicious, with different tastes, soup stock, ingredients, even the shape and hardness of the rice cakes. As Mr. Kasuya says, if you can enjoy ozoni while traveling, you will be able to enjoy your trip even more.
And if there is a ``second edition'', I would definitely like to visit again.
As I rubbed my stomach, which was swollen from the zoni, I decided to ask my grandmother for our family's zoni recipe when I got home.
