#tannuki

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Food and drink in anime

Uchōten Kazoku

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eccentric_Family

Episode 4 Daimonji Leisure Cruiser Battle

Episode 5 The Friday Fellows Club

たぬき鍋orたぬき汁 Tanukinabe (tanuki hot pot) or Tanikijiru (tanuki soup)

In one sense, the 'main dish' of this anime is this: tanukinabe

Tanukinabe is usually called tanukijiru. According to a recipe in a book entitled Ryori Monogatari, tanukijiru is a miso soup with tanujki meat, daikon radish, burdock root etc.. in it and with a little bit of garlic on it.

Ryori Monogatari was published in 1643, so tanukijiru is the dish with a tradition of 400 years or more, much older than nigirizushi or tempura. But most of the Japanese today including me have never tried it.

A game meat restaurant named Momonjiya, established in 1718, once served tanukijiru but took it off their menu few years ago. You can see the images of Momonjiya tanukijiru in blogs and restaurant review sites. The example is here.

Why did such a traditional dish go downhill? Why did Momonjiya pull tanukijiru from their menu? The answer might be found in those blogs and reviews.

They say tanuki meat is SO STINK, SO DISTASTEFUL.

Thus, thanks to their meat's odor and taste, tanuki in Kyoto can live long as long as they are not captured by The Friday Fellows Club.

A ryokan in Niigata prefecture serves real tanukinabe, if you want to try...