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The Origins of Chawanmushi, Japanese Dishes

Holiday Ayo - One of the Japan dishes, chawanmushi, is an egg mixed with eggs and broth, steamed with ingredients such as shiitake mushrooms, lily root, and gingko in a bowl, and is treated as a steamed dish or soup.

It is said that the roots of chawan fumigation were a dish that was served as one of the course meals in the table style that was handed down during exchanges with the Tang people (Chinese) in the Edo period.

Chawanmushi (茶碗蒸し) is a traditional Japanese dish that consists of steamed or custard eggs in a bowl, and locals also considered it a kind of soup. As an appetizer or as part of Kaiseki ryori, the Japanese serve each portion of the dish in a tiny, covered cup. The custard is generally of an egg mixture that has dashi (Japanese stock), soy sauce, mushrooms, tofu, ginkgo nut, or steamed shrimp.

source: Bangka & Sonora

You can have ingredients such as shiitake mushrooms, ginkgo nuts, lily bulb, kamaboko (mainly Itakamaboko), chicken, small shrimp, and grilled conger eel. Locals poured over a mixture of beaten egg, dashi stock, soy sauce, and salt, then they covered and steamed the cups. This method prevents overcooking while preserving natural flavors and nutrients.

Chawanmushi (茶碗蒸し, chawanmushi, literally “teacup steam” or “steamed in a tea bowl”). “Chawan (茶碗)” means teacup or rice bowl and “Mushi (蒸し)” means steamed in Japanese, and it is indeed steamed food in a cup.

The era of Tsunayoshi Tokugawa, known for his decree of compassion. Nagasaki prefecture exclusively traded raw silk, sugar, and chemicals with China. The Chinese people who came to Nagasaki were free to stay anywhere in Nagasaki. But due to the flourishing smuggling, the Shogunate built a Tojin Yashiki in 1689 (Genroku 2).

They housed the Chinese there. Many believed that the Chinese people introduced a dish they called “Shippoku” to entertain people, and that was the root of chawanmushi. 

source: RedDoorz

Nobutake Yoshida, who was a feudal lord of Iyo Matsuyama, ate chawanmushi for the first time in Nagasaki and was impressed by the taste. So he opened the shop under the name Yoshimune. It is the oldest restaurant that serves chawanmushi. It is a restaurant specializing in steamed foods. Chawanmushi was not like the current chawanmushi from the beginning, but it was egg-steamed at first. The amount of soup stock gradually increased, and it became a chawanmushi that has been handed down to the present day.

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