Oden – [Meat|Foodlore]

Description

Oden – (御田) – “🍢”

• About: “Oden wouldn’t be Oden, If it wasn’t boiled!” – Primarily enjoyed at food stalls during the colder winter months, Oden is one of the oldest streetfoods in japan [Reaching back as far as the Muromachi period (1336 to 1573)] It’s definitively known as THE iconic comfort food in the wintertime. – The very iconic picture of Oden on a stick is featured as the emoji ” 🍢” – is typically shown to be made of the 3 following ingredients:

・A Gray Triangular slice of Konnyaku Jelly. – [蒟蒻 – aka: Konjac, “devils tounge” Yam based jelly]
・A round crunchy, Satsuma-age. – [薩摩揚げ, Seasoned, Fried, Fish Cake!]
・Springy, Chewy, Chikuwa. – [竹輪, A lightly fried Tube-shaped Fish Cake.]

Other typical ingredients to the dish; include Hard-boiled Eggs, Daikon & Tofu (Among various other meats and treats!) – The whole dish is boiled & served piping hot in either a Miso or Daishi broth (consisting of both Kelp & Bonito flakes which give it its flavour, Some chefs spend months perfecting the taste of their broths! it can be a very involved process!)

• Pop-Culture (& folklore connections): Incidentally, (&. this is only tangentially related to the food. but I felt it would be fun enough to mention here.) there is a famous scene in the later half of the currently world famous manga/anime series by Ehiro Oda: “One Piece” where in the jolly but Head-Strong Rightful, King of Wano (named “Oden”) is boiled alive by an usurper, (Much like actual “Oden” is, which was the joke.) however what makes this a folkloric link, is that Oda seems to have more or less directly based the entire wano arc off of the popular legend of “Ishikowa Goemon” who was a legendary bandit, turned outlaw-hero from 15th-century Japan. Goemon, who was known for his various attempts to steal from the rich and give to the poor, (much like Robin Hood.) became a folk hero and a symbol of defiance against tyrants!. His story comes to an abrupt end after trying to assassinate a powerful warlord, he was captured alive and soon, He, His Wife, Father-in-law and his 13 year old Son where all executed publicly, boiled in an iron kettle which was filled with boiling oil!! Goemon holds his son above his head as he boils alive, as his wife watches (as seen below in the Kabuki inspired, Ukiyo-e print by Kuniyoshi, 1851) – Goemon’s story became the subject of many kabuki dramas. (Ever since then, Goemon’s story has inspired and been adapted countless times in modern pop culture, in addittion to one piece; he also inspired the Mystical ninja Goemon video game series & The Samurai from the hit anime: Lupin the 3rd & countless others!) 

[close up of a similar print, love the fire details.]