July Breakfast: Introduction to the Monthly Menu♪

Welcome to Henn na Hotel Tokyo Hamamatsucho.
Thank you very much for your continued patronage of Henn na Hotel Tokyo Hamamatsucho!

Introducing the Monthly Menu for July!

 

July's [Edo Okazu] (Edo Side Dish)

Fried Eggplant in Broth (Dutch-style Simmered)

Eggplants in the Edo period were a luxury ingredient, with the first harvests fetching very high prices, and they were also cherished as good luck charms, as seen in the saying "First Mount Fuji, second hawk, third eggplant." They were presented to the shogunate family, and enjoyed by common people in pickles and various dishes, deeply rooted in Edo's food culture.

 

Fried eggplant soaked in broth is a classic dish of the traditional “Edo Okazu” (Edo side dishes) recorded in cookbooks from the Edo period. The umami is enhanced by soaking the fried eggplant in dashi, and it is delicious whether served chilled or warmed.

 

At that time, cooking methods such as deep-frying and stir-frying were considered to have been introduced from the West. It is said that these techniques were brought through trade with the Netherlands via Dejima in Nagasaki during the Edo period, and people of that era named the dish "Oranda-ni" (Dutch stew) to imply a "Western-style" flavor.