is a traditional
stew served throughout
Japan. It has many different names depending on the region, but its most famous version is from
Niigata, known as either Noppe, Noppei, or Noppe-jiru.
Noppe is generally made from left-over
vegetable
Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems, ...
parts, sauteed or boiled in
sesame oil
Sesame oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from sesame seeds. The oil is one of the earliest-known crop-based oils. Worldwide mass modern production is limited due to the inefficient manual harvesting process required to extract the oil. ...
. The ingredients and
thickening agent
A thickening agent or thickener is a substance which can increase the viscosity of a liquid without substantially changing its other properties. Edible thickeners are commonly used to thicken sauces, soups, and puddings without altering the ...
s vary widely per town and region, but
yams, carrots, radish, taro,
[{{Citation, last=Nakama, first=Yukiko, title=Community Development Based on the Local Food Culture: A Case Study of Mindani District, date=2020, url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-981-15-7352-1_9, work=Farm and Rural Community Management in Less Favored Areas, series=New Frontiers in Regional Science: Asian Perspectives , volume=44, pages=147–160, editor-last=Yasunaga, editor-first=Nobuyoshi, place=Singapore, publisher=Springer Singapore, language=en, doi=10.1007/978-981-15-7352-1_9, isbn=978-981-15-7351-4, s2cid=236804364 , access-date=2021-09-20, editor2-last=Inoue, editor2-first=Norikazu] shiitake mushrooms,
konjac
Konjac (or konjak, ) is a common name of the East and Southeast Asian plant ''Amorphophallus konjac'' ( syn. ''A. rivieri''), which has an edible corm (bulbo-tuber). It is also known as konjaku, konnyaku potato, devil's tongue, voodoo lily, sn ...
, and fried
tofu
Tofu (), also known as bean curd in English, is a food prepared by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into solid white blocks of varying softness; it can be ''silken'', ''soft'', ''firm'', ''extra firm'' or ''super f ...
are often used. After the ingredients are boiled into a stew, thickening agents such as
soy sauce,
salt
Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...
and
starch are added.
Chicken
The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adu ...
or
fish
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...
are also occasionally used.
In and around
Niigata, it is often eaten at
festivals
A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival c ...
,
Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
ceremonies, and during the
New Year period.
See also
*
List of Japanese soups and stews
This is a list of Japanese soups and stews. Japanese cuisine is the food—ingredients, preparation and way of eating—of Japan. The phrase refers to the makeup of a typical meal served, but has roots in classic '' kaiseki'', '' honzen'', and ' ...
References
Japanese soups and stews