Hakata Izakaya Hot Pot · Beef Offal
Motsunabe
Photo: Hykw-a4 / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
Offal in Japan is called 'horumon', and a popular folk etymology links it to Osaka dialect 'hōru mon', things you throw away, though the word more likely comes from 'hormone', since offal was once promoted as a stamina food.
Beef or pork offal is simmered at the table in a shallow pot with a wall of garlic chives, cabbage and a soy or miso broth, traditionally finished by tipping in noodles or rice to soak up what's left once the meat is gone.
Why it's made this way: It emerged from postwar food shortages in Kyushu's coal-mining communities — with Korean immigrant laborers, who had brought offal cooking to Japanese cities since the 1920s, central to its early spread — where cheap offal that would otherwise go to waste became a way to stretch a filling meal; the dish later migrated into Hakata's back-alley izakayas and went mainstream by the 1960s.
More from Japan
Ramune
Takoyaki (Octopus Balls)
Yakitori (Skewered Chicken)
Okonomiyaki (お好み焼き)
Taiyaki (たい焼き)
Sapporo Miso Ramen
Part of World of Street Food — 3443 dishes from 118 countries.
Something wrong here? Tell us in the comments below.
Photo credits.