Shizuoka Oden is characterized by its black soup, unique contents on skewers, and how it is eaten. You can enjoy it no matter the season, and the love of this oden is represented in Shizuoka by the locals, both young and old alike.
The first distinctive feature of Shizuoka Oden is the black broth. It is stewed for a long time by adding soup that consists of beef tendon. Even though the colour of the soup is so dark, the taste is neither salty or strong. However, the taste of soup varies greatly depending on the store. Please try oden hopping – you will never get tired of eating. Oden shops are usually self-service, so you can choose your favourite ingredients, which also might differ from store to store, and then pay at the end by calculating the number of skewers.
The features of Shizuoka Oden are:
・Soaked in a black soup which is made from beef tendon.
・Ingredients are skewered.
・Black hanpens are added.
・Sprinkled with dashi powder before eating.
・Available as small snacks stores.
Black hanpen is made of minced fish meat, such as sardine and mackerel, and a Yaizu City specialty. This “D” shaped food is unique to Shizuoka Prefecture and popular among locals. Dashi powder is finely powdered sardine or mackerel, and depending on the stores, dried green laver flakes are also mixed in. In addition, you can add karashi (Japanese mustard), and some restaurants even offer their oden with miso (soybean paste).
Shizuoka Oden evolved as a way to recover from the food shortage after the war by efficiently using beef tendon and pork tripe, which had been considered insignificant materials and therefore discarded. Another reason for its unique evolution is due to Shizuoka’s ability to obtain fresh seafood from the nearby ports. The fresh catch was used in the fish paste products for the oden. By 1955, there were hundreds of stalls along the main street of Shizuoka City.
Now there are still a number of oden streets in the city, but “Aoba Oden Dori” and “Aoba Yokocho” are especially famous. Aoba Oden Dori, with 21 oden shops, stands out as a tourist spot because of its nostalgic and Insta-worthy scenery. There are many lanterns, and it is decorated in the style of the Showa era.
