【Reading】たきあわせ

【English Name】Takiawase

Takiawase is one of the simmering techniques in Japanese cuisine, referring to a dish in which several kinds of ingredients are each finished separately in different pots and then arranged together in a single bowl or on a plate. It is also written "taki-awase" or "ni-awase."

The reason this technique is used lies in the fact that the way heat passes through and the speed at which flavor penetrates differ greatly from ingredient to ingredient. Wakatake-ni (simmered bamboo shoots and wakame) makes this easy to understand. Bamboo shoots (takenoko) have dense fibers and take time for flavor to penetrate, whereas wakame absorbs flavor in a short time but, conversely, has a tendency to lose its shape if heated too long. Moreover, if simmered in the same pot, the pigment of the wakame transfers to the bamboo shoots, adversely affecting the appearance as well.

What solves this problem is the concept of takiawase. The bamboo shoots are carefully finished as tosa-ni flavored with bonito flakes, while the wakame is quickly cooked in a separate pot. The two finished items are arranged together on one plate, and the dish is completed with a touch of color from kinome (young sansho leaves). The true essence of takiawase lies in drawing out the individuality of each ingredient to the fullest while crafting a dish with a sense of the season.

Often served as the simmered-dish bowl (nimono-wan) of kaiseki and kaiseki-banquet cuisine, it is a cooking method that strongly reflects the Japanese culinary aesthetic of expressing the changing of the four seasons through combinations of seasonal ingredients, and stands as a symbol of the depth of washoku culture.