{"id":1693,"date":"2023-06-16T18:00:37","date_gmt":"2023-06-16T09:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/goodie-foodie.com\/en\/?p=1693"},"modified":"2025-07-21T18:05:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T09:05:22","slug":"23045","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/goodie-foodie.com\/en\/23045\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Local foods in TOCHIGI | Utsunomiya gyoza, Sano ramen, Nikko yuba, Ichigo, and Toteyaki"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u5b87\u90fd\u5bae\u9903\u5b50\u00ae<\/sup>\u3000Utsunomiya gyoza<\/em><\/h2>\r\n
\"\u5b87\u90fd\u5bae\u9903\u5b50\"<\/div>\r\n

Utsunomiya is famous for its gyoza (dumplings). This area produces large amounts of wheat and chives, both ingredients for gyoza. Because of the hot summers and cold winters in the area, gyoza, considered stamina food, was even more popularized. Utsunomiya gyoza<\/em> is made by wrapping vegetables into a thin gyoza skin. They are dipped into a soy and red chili oil-based sauce. Each restaurant has they\u2019re on variant of this sauce.<\/p>\r\n\n

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Read Next<\/div>\n
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How to eat Utsunomiya Gyoza | Sauce secrets for pan-fried and boiled gyoza at Utsunomiya Minmin<\/div>\n
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How to eat Utsunomiya Gyoza | Sauce secrets for pan-fried and boiled gyoza at Utsunomiya Minmin <\/p><\/div>\n

What food resonates with the hearts and souls of the locals in Utsunomiya City, Tochigi Prefecture? Without doubt, Utsunomiya Gyoza! Here in Tochigi Prefecture, the yearly average household budget for gyoza is the highest in all of Japan. So, how do the locals enjoy their gyoza? We visited the highly popular restaurant, Utsunomiya Minmin, to learn the smart way to eat Utsunomiya Gyoza!<\/p><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

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\u4f50\u91ce\u30e9\u30fc\u30e1\u30f3\u3000Sano ramen<\/em><\/h2>\r\n
\"\u4f50\u91ce\u30e9\u30fc\u30e1\u30f3\"<\/div>\r\n

Sano Ramen<\/em> is the local noodle of Sano City in Tochigi. Sano city is famous for its high-quality water, with their main source, Izuruhara Bentenike Spring listed in the top 100 best waters in Japan.
\r\nSano Ramen<\/em> is characterized by its light soy sauce flavored soup made with their quality water, and soft noodles. The origins of Sano Ramen come from a Chinese chef who introduced a noodle-making technique known as “green bamboo rolls\u201d to the city between 1912 and 1926. February 25th is considered Sano Ramen<\/em> Day, and many ramen shops will have a special service in celebration.<\/p>\r\n

\u65e5\u5149\u6e6f\u6ce2\u3000Nikko yuba<\/em><\/h2>\r\n
\"\u65e5\u5149\u6e6f\u6ce2\"<\/div>\r\n

Tochigi Prefecture is famous for yuba, same as Kyoto. Yuba is said to have been introduced from China around 1200 A.D. Eaten as a vegetarian food, it became more popular in the late 1800s.
\r\nNikko Yuba is made from boiled soy milk. As it gets hot, it forms a tofu \u201cskin\u201d layer at the top. Using a metal skewer, this layer is picked up and rolled to create yuba. It\u2019s used in a variety of meals, such as simmered, one-pot, or even sashimi dishes. Among them, fried and simmered yuba are considered the best specialties.<\/p>\r\n\n

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Read Next<\/div>\n
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How to eat Nikko Yuba | Explore the heritage and flavor of yuba, a renowned food of Tochigi Prefecture<\/div>\n
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How to eat Nikko Yuba | Explore the heritage and flavor of yuba, a renowned food of Tochigi Prefecture <\/p><\/div>\n

Nikko City, in Tochigi Prefecture, has a long heritage of making the most of its natural environment to produce yuba, the skin that forms on the top of boiled soy milk during the tofu making process. To write the word yuba, the kanji characters for \u201chot water\u201d and \u201cleaf\u201d are used in Kyoto, but in Tochigi Prefecture, the kanji for \u201chot water\u201d and \u201cwave\u201d are preferred. What\u2019s the reason behind this nuance? And how is yuba prepared into cuisine? We visited a local kappo-style restaurant to learn about the fascinating story of yuba.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

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\u3044\u3061\u3054\u3000Ichigo<\/em><\/h2>\r\n
\"\u3044\u3061\u3054\"<\/div>\r\n

Tochigi Prefecture boasts the largest strawberry harvest in Japan. Strawberry cultivation takes advantage of the winter climate, and the long sunlight hours of sunny days. The Strawberry Research Institute has been established to develop new strawberry varieties and cultivate strawberries on a daily basis. Some of these new variants, such as Tochiotome, Tochiaika, Tochihime, Skyberry, Natsuotome, and Milky Berry, have all been produced in Tochigi.<\/p>\r\n

\u3068\u3066\u713c\u304d\u3000Toteyaki<\/em><\/h2>\r\n
\"\u3068\u3066\u713c\u304d\"<\/div>\r\n

Shiobara Onsenkyo is located in the northern area of Tochigi, know as Shiobara. During the late 1800s, the main means of transportation were horse drawn carriages, known as totebako. Taking inspiration from this, Toteyaki<\/em> is food shaped like the horns that the carriages would use.
\r\nNasushiobara city is the second largest producer of raw milk in Japan. Local milk and eggs are used to make the dough for the toteyaki<\/em>. Even though it looks like a crepe at first glance, its texture is fluffy, similar to a sponge cake. Fillings for toteyaki<\/em> vary store to store, but often its filled with red bean paste, or buckwheat noodles.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tochigi Prefecture is dotted with tourist locations, like the World Heritage Site known as Nikko Toshogu. It\u2019s also the home of Lake Chuzenji, which has been a popular summer resort since the Meiji period. Although the prefecture has no ocean access, the Kinugawa and Naka rivers bless the are with abundant water and river fish. It\u2019s also the largest producer of strawberries and kanpyo (dried gourd) in Japan, and has many specialty products.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1705,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[56,76,111],"class_list":["post-1693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-slug_articles","tag-what","tag-local-gourmet","tag-area-gourmet"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodie-foodie.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodie-foodie.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodie-foodie.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodie-foodie.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodie-foodie.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1693"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/goodie-foodie.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1744,"href":"https:\/\/goodie-foodie.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1693\/revisions\/1744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodie-foodie.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodie-foodie.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodie-foodie.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodie-foodie.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}