Cool to be square: A block of tofu with veggies to chill your summer
Meaning 'cube shaped,' the term 'yakko' is derived from the white, square-shaped crest that adorned the sleeves of servants who attended to high-ranking samurai in the Edo Period (1603-1868). Blocks of tofu cut to resemble the crest became a popular dish among Edo (the former name of Tokyo) townspeople, and hiya (chilled) yakko remains a favorite hot-weather dish today throughout Japan.
My version of the dish, dashi yakko, includes a salsa-like topping made from fresh chopped myōga (Japanese ginger), cucumber, eggplant and blanched okra that is known as 'dashi' in Yamagata Prefecture (stock is referred to as dashi-jiru in the region).
The recipe's dashi mixture includes cucumber, eggplants and okra, which are all at their peak in summer. |
ELIZABETH ANDOH
The Japanese generally embrace foods with viscosity (think positive cling, not negative slime), and in this dish, vegetables such as okra encourage other minced morsels to bind with each other. The result is a mixture of crisp, succulent tidbits with a slightly slick mouthfeel.
For those who relish slippery textures, I recommend adding nagaimo, a mineral-rich yam that aids digestion and is thought to have a cooling effect on the metabolism. For those who wish to spice things up, adding green chilis such as shishitō tōgarashi is another option. In Yamagata, every household seems to have its own version of dashi; I encourage you to create your own using the basic recipe below as a point of departure.
Once assembled, the dashi yakko mixture will keep refrigerated for up to five days. Having a jar on hand will make it easy to pull together a main course salad for supper on a muggy summer evening. The veggie-herb mixture also garnishes cold noodles and is served with plain cooked rice. Other (eclectic) uses for dashi include wrapping some in lettuce leaves, stuffing tomatoes or bell pepper cups with it or folding it into an omelet.
Dashi yakko with fresh herb relish
1 block kinugoshi (silken) tofu (150 grams per portion; each block serves one)
Yamagata dashi mixture (makes about 3 cups, enough for 12 portions)
2 small Japanese eggplants, about 180 grams total
Salt, about 1¼ teaspoon total, used in preparing several of the vegetables
1 cucumber (about 120 grams)
140 grams nagaimo (5- to 7-centimeter segment)
1 teaspoon vinegar mixed into 2 cups water
3 okra pods (about 35 grams)
1 small knob fresh young ginger (about 50 grams)
1 bulb myōga
4 to 5 green shiso (perilla) leaves
1 tablespoon usukuchi (light-colored) shoyu
2 teaspoons mirin
Chill the blocks of tofu, each in its own serving dish, as you prepare the dashi mixture.
You'll be prepping each ingredient in a slightly different way before assembling them together in a bowl and lightly seasoning the mixture. To avoid unwanted metallic or plastic odors, it is best to mix everything in a glass bowl that can be covered and refrigerated until serving time.
Begin by preparing the eggplants. Trim away the stems and sepals but keep the dark skins intact. Dice the eggplants finely and place the bits in a glass bowl filled with salted water (1 teaspoon salt mixed into 2 cups tap water). To ensure that the bits stay submerged in the brine, press a piece of paper towel on the pieces to serve as a clinging lid. Allow the eggplant bits to soak for at least 30 minutes and up to several hours. The soaking liquid will turn brown.
After dicing and soaking the eggplants in water, gently squeeze them to remove their excess liquid. |
ELIZABETH ANDOH
Drain and rinse the soaked eggplant bits in fresh water, then gently squeeze them to remove excess liquid. Place these bits in whatever bowl or container that will hold the final mixture.
Next, prepare the cucumbers. Slice off the very top (the nonflowering end where it had been attached to the vine as it grew) and rub the cut edges against each other in a circular motion. The friction caused by this action draws out a pasty white foam that the Japanese call 'aku' (naturally occurring but astringent-tasting bitterness).
Rinse away the foam and slice the cucumbers lengthwise into strips. Cut across the strips to dice the cucumbers finely and place the pieces in a bowl. Toss them with ¼ teaspoon salt and let them sit for at least 5 minutes and up to 20 minutes. Lightly squeeze and drain off their excess moisture before adding them to the final bowl or container.
Wrap the segment of the nagaimo in a paper towel to expose one end and, using a vegetable peeler, peel away the exposed skin. The uncovered surface will become very slippery — holding it with the paper towel will make it safer to handle. Using a fresh piece of paper towel, grab the peeled end and remove the remaining portion of skin.
Wrap one end of the "nagaimo" (mountain yam) with a paper towel and peel away the exposed skin with a vegetable peeler. |
ELIZABETH ANDOH
Lay the paper towel on a cutting board, then slice and dice the nagaimo. Place the chopped yam in a bowl of vinegar water (1 teaspoon vinegar mixed into 2 cups water). This will prevent it from discoloring and minimize possible irritation from handling (some people feel an itching sensation after handling nagaimo). Let it soak for 10 minutes and drain.
Rub the okra pods with ¼ teaspoon salt to remove any fuzz and ensure the pods will be brightly colored after being blanched. Trim away the stems without cutting into the pods to limit stickiness. Bring a small pot of water to a rolling boil, add the salted pods and blanch them for 1 minute after the water returns to a boil. Drain the okra and let them cool naturally — do not refresh under cold water. When the pods are cool enough to be handled comfortably (about 1 minute later), slice them thinly into (naturally star-shaped) rounds. Add the okra slices to the other prepped ingredients.
Peel the ginger and mince finely. Slice the myōga bulb in half lengthwise, then across into thin half-moon shreds. Add the ginger and myōga bits to the prepped vegetables.
Rinse and remove the stems of the shiso leaves, then stack and roll them tightly. Cut across the grain into thin shreds, then cut across to make shorter lengths.
Place all the ingredients in a glass bowl, stirring and tossing to distribute them well. Mix the usukuchi shoyu and mirin together and drizzle this mixture over the chopped vegetables and herbs, then toss well. Sticky items such as the okra will 'string' as you stir the mixture — this is fine as it will keep the various ingredients clinging together.
Mix the shoyu and mirin together and drizzle it over the vegetable and herb mixture before tossing well. |
ELIZABETH ANDOH
When ready to serve, spoon a generous amount of the mixture over blocks of well-chilled silken tofu. Serve with a spoon. Cover and refrigerate any remaining dashi mixture.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
3 hours ago
Vlas Kobara: Japanese Language Education Breaks Down Barriers for Foreign Children in Japan
I was born in Khabarovsk, Russia, in 1992, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but moved with my mother to Japan when I was five years old. We lived in Himeji, Hyōgo Prefecture, at first. A family story goes that when I entered nursery school, I insisted on wearing sunglasses and jewelry. Looking back, I suppose I was struggling in my own way to fit into Japanese society. When I was little, there was one person, a man I met in a park in Himeji, who made a strong impression on me. He called me over and gave me candy and we talked. When I spoke about myself, I copied what my friends called me and said 'Vlas-kun is...' but he corrected me, saying, 'You don't use 'kun' when you talk about yourself.' He also taught me the Japanese words for 'bench' as well as 'baseball,' pointing to a nearby game to explain a little how to play. You might say he was a nosy old man, but when I think back now, he was only trying to bring me into the community of that park using simple Japanese. I was very lucky to meet someone like that and for the subsequent friends I have made, who helped me become part of Japanese society. Foreign children can feel isolated, and I believe that Japanese educational spaces should create room for them to join and talk with people outside their families so they can get to know others in their community. Sharing Dreams I head the organization Supporting Foreign Children to Attend School, which provides 100 hours of free online Japanese language education to children who cannot yet speak Japanese well. The aim is to give them the minimum level of language ability to participate in school lessons. Our basic financing is through crowdfunding, with lessons being run with the help of students from Reitaku University. An online session to support foreign-born children in Japan to enroll in Japanese school. (© SFCS) The children often struggle to simply introduce themselves, and sometimes break into tears during the lessons. But they learn words quickly. After around 30 hours, they can talk about their favorite anime and tell us about their marks in school. After 100 hours of lessons, some children are even able to describe what they want to be when they grow up. Of course, 100 hours is not sufficient to master Japanese. But it is enough to make Japanese friends and to give people the confidence to say, 'It's all right for me to be here.' Children typically do not have a say in their parents' decision to move to Japan. In the country, they suddenly find themselves face to face with a language barrier that makes it nearly impossible to communicate with their peers and others around them. Imagine being in a class where you are the only student who does not understand the words being spoken. It goes without saying that it is a stressful experience. That is why we need to create environments where children are not isolated and are able to express their thoughts. The SFCS was established in 2021, and I became director in 2022. I am charged with raising awareness of the need for Japanese language education for foreign-born children and supporting and interacting with our students, including speaking at the program's graduation. Acquiring Japanese language skills is a comprehensive process that cannot be easily divided into areas like study or play, which is why instructors need to be clever in their approaches. A letter of thanks decorated with origami from a child who went through the SFCS Japanese lessons. (© SFCS) Lack of Understanding Builds Up As Japan's foreign population increases, there is talk of closed communities of, say, only Vietnamese or Chinese resident, who isolated from their Japanese neighbors struggle to come to terms with Japanese society and share their grievances to blow off steam. If there is not a way for such groups to communicate with Japanese people directly to learn how they see the world, then such foreign communities run the risk of growing ever more polarized and the views of members becoming more extreme. If Japanese people can learn more about the reasons behind foreign residents' behavior, though, we can find better balance. The bridge spanning those two sides is the Japanese language. The Japanese government has said that there are over 8,600 school-age foreign children in Japan who are possibly not attending elementary or middle school. Children who do not attend school or learn Japanese will not make Japanese friends or become attached to Japan as a country, leading to fractures in society. I have read numerous articles about immigration issues in Western countries that describe how many second-generation children who did not go to school ended up grouping together and forming gangs. Such stories negatively impact the immigration issue, fueling anti-foreigner sentiment and bolstering support to remove immigrants. The value of learning Japanese for foreign residents in Japan is that it breaks down barriers. Being able to understand and answer someone or making friends with Japanese people are experiences that help open children's minds, and I believe can lead to a society that is better for everyone, foreign and Japanese alike. Vlas Kobara recording a podcast. 'If you look at reality with clear eyes, you soon see what's needed right now.' (© Almost Japanese) 'We Have to Live Together.' Anti-immigrant sentiment is growing in Japan and around the world. But what if in this country we could go back to earlier times, before such negative views had gained a foothold and ask people whether they wanted to reject immigrants. I think the majority of people would not be anti-immigration and be open to taking in foreigners. This is because immigration is an economic necessity. Japan's population is falling and foreigners support Japanese society by working, paying taxes, and paying into the national pension. For better or worse, we are in a time when we have to live together. As the foreign population grows, we frequently hear phrases like 'cultural diversity' and 'coexistence.' These are important ideas, but Japan does not have to embrace every aspect of foreign culture brought by immigration. It is not necessary nor possible to understand everything about each other. Rather, people should find those aspects that they can embrace, and distance themselves from those that are hard to accept. What is important is to strike a balance. I want foreigners coming to Japan to know that the country is not suited to everyone. There tends to be a rosy image of Japan being warm, open, and peaceful. I agree that it is a wonderful country with lots of great people, but there are certain types of individuals and points of view that are hard for foreigners to come to grips with. Similarly, there are Japanese people who have no interest in understanding foreigners' points of view. This is a reality that must be accepted, making it all the more important that foreign residents strive to communicate with Japanese people in their own language. Private Sector Taking Action I am uncertain what official measures Japan is taking to support immigrants, but there are many individuals in the private sector who are taking action. When we put out the word looking for cooperation in Japanese language education, we had lots of people volunteer to help or support our crowdfunding efforts. The current situation is less about waiting for the government to take the lead and more centered on private citizens and organizations taking action because they see a need. One problem, however, is a lack of coordination among different projects. To bolster collaboration there needs to be more information sharing and integration among the different support organizations. I want to help foreign children learn not to be afraid of interacting with Japanese people and the broader society by giving them the skills and experience to communicate effectively. I want more foreigners to be able to express themselves, and to create an environment where they can feel comfortable with the way of studying in Japan, attending Japanese schools, and being a part of a society where friends from different backgrounds can accept each other. This starts with the simple joy of having someone understand what you are saying. A diary page written by a foreign-born child who learned Japanese through SFCS online program. (© SFCS) I believe that a society where any child can feel like they belong benefits everyone, Japanese and foreign resident alike. It is important to discuss what is working and deal with ongoing issues. It is not enough merely to point out that there are children who are struggling to fit in at schools. It is vital to show that there are children who are succeeding and have found their place in Japan. I believe that sharing positive examples builds the desire to change society. (Originally published in Japanese, based on an interview by Matsumoto Sōichi of . Banner photo © Ochi Takao.)
Japan Times
5 hours ago
- Japan Times
Hong Kong scientist puts hope in nest boxes to save endangered cockatoos
Above the teeming shopping streets of Hong Kong's Causeway Bay district, a fight to save one of the world's most endangered species is unfolding high in the branches of a decades-old cotton tree. Nestled among its sprawling boughs is a nest box designed for the yellow-crested cockatoo, of which only 1,200 to 2,000 remain in the world. Although the birds are native to East Timor and Indonesia, one-tenth of those left are found in Hong Kong — one of the "largest cohesive remaining wild populations" globally, according to Astrid Andersson, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hong Kong. Their future now hangs in the balance, due to habitat loss and, some suspect, a black market for the rare birds. The cockatoos' numbers have stagnated, with far fewer juveniles than when Andersson began monitoring almost 10 years ago. The birds don't make their own nests but depend on natural cavities in trees — about 80% of which have vanished in recent years, because of typhoon damage and government pruning. The nest boxes set up by Andersson are an attempt to rectify this, designed to resemble the hollows sought out by the birds. A yellow-crested cockatoo raises its crest as it rests on a tree branch at Victoria Park in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong | AFP-JIJI She plans to place about 50 around the city. "Without the nest boxes, I believe that the cockatoos will have fewer and fewer opportunities to increase or replace individuals that die in their population," she said. The boxes will also allow observation of their reproductive behavior, which has never been comprehensively studied. Human-wildlife coexistence The cockatoos' existence in Hong Kong has been "a very positive story about human-wildlife coexistence," said Andersson. The population in Hong Kong is an introduced one, with one urban legend recounting they originated from an aviary set free by the British governor of Hong Kong before surrendering to the Japanese in 1941. There is no evidence to support that story, however — the modern flock's ancestors are in fact believed to be escaped pets. Hong Kong's urban parks, full of mature trees bearing fruit, nuts and other food, became a "sanctuary" for them, Andersson said. Urban animal habitat designer Harry Wong climbs up a cotton tree at Victoria Park in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, to install an artificial nest box for yellow-crested cockatoos. | AFP-JIJI The cockatoos are now part of the city's fabric, their loud squawks echoing through the sky at nightfall. Perched on streetlights, they sit calmly observing the humming traffic along city flyovers. Many people don't realize they are looking at an endangered species in their neighborhood. "We genuinely thought they were just like an average parakeet," said resident Erfan, who lives near a flyover. Yellow-crested cockatoos are often mistaken for sulphur-crested cockatoos, commonly found in Australia rummaging through bins. The two are genetically distinct though, and the Australian species is not endangered. Black market? Merchants at Hong Kong's bird market certainly know the difference. When reporters visited, sulphur-crested cockatoos were openly displayed, while yellow-crested ones were only shown upon request. Several yellow-crested cockatoos rest atop a light pole in the Sai Ying Pun neighborhood in Hong Kong. | AFP-JIJI A 1-year-old bird was being sold for a whopping 56,000 Hong Kong dollars ($7,000), while a 2-month-old chick could sell for HK$14,000. It has been illegal since 2005 to trade wild-caught yellow-crested cockatoos. Selling ones bred in captivity is allowed, but the breeders must have valid licenses under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). There are no such registered breeders in Hong Kong. Sharon Kwok Pong, founder of Hong Kong Parrot Rescue, believes there may be a "black market." "There have been people that find out where these birds are, they raid them," she said. Captive-bred cockatoos should have a ring on their leg and documentation proving their origin, but these can be falsified. "I think we need a crackdown," Kwok said. "If you want to protect a species, so unique in this environment, I think a lot of things need to fall into place." 'A backup population' Andersson has developed a forensic test that analyses a cockatoo's diet to determine whether it was recently taken from the wild. She hopes this will help enforce the ban on illegal sales. In their native habitats, poaching, rapid habitat loss and climate change have devastated the cockatoos' numbers. The financial hub's birds may one day be able to help revive them. "Hong Kong's population could have genetic lineages that are now gone," she said. It could function "as a backup population for the wild Indonesian counterparts."
The Mainichi
10 hours ago
- The Mainichi
In Photos: Okinawa island locals accused of 'spying' for US military at end of war killed
Image 1 of 8 Eef Beach, where the U.S. military landed on June 26, 1945, in the final phase of World War II, is seen in the town of Kumejima, Okinawa Prefecture, in this photo taken on Aug. 4, 2025. The Japanese military's Kayama unit began to kill local residents after the U.S. military's landing, and the atrocities continued until late August that year. (Mainichi/Shinnosuke Kyan)
