From our other sites
The story
Yamagata City’s annual “Japan’s No. 1 Imoni Party” was held on the riverbank, where about 30,000 servings of imoni (a taro stew) were made in “Nabe Taro III,” a giant pot 6.5 meters in diameter. The ingredients included 3.2 tons of Yamagata-grown taro, 1.2 tons of beef, and 3,500 negi (long green onions), plus equally massive amounts of seasonings — 700 liters of soy sauce, 200 kg of sugar, and more. What caught fire on the forum thread was the hygiene of the large excavator used to stir the pot, with posters offering conflicting claims like “the bucket is custom-made, unpainted stainless steel,” sparking debate. The thread also branched into a regional comparison of imoni recipes — Yamagata’s version uses soy sauce and beef, while Miyagi’s is closer to a miso-based pork soup — with each Tohoku prefecture having its own take.
An event called “Japan’s No. 1 Imoni Party,” where the Yamagata regional dish “imoni” (taro stew) is cooked in a massive pot, was held on the riverbank in Yamagata City and drew large crowds.
“Japan’s No. 1 Imoni Party” is an autumn tradition in Yamagata, held every year on the riverbank in Yamagata City, where imoni is cooked in a giant pot 6.5 meters in diameter named “Nabe Taro III.”
On the 20th, to make about 30,000 servings of imoni, organizers prepared 3.2 tons of Yamagata-grown taro, 1.2 tons of beef, and 3,500 long green onions, along with seasonings including 700 liters of soy sauce and 200 kg of sugar.
Source: news.web.nhk / Original article here
What people said
Stirring it with industrially painted equipment is gross.
So are you also going to complain about the Self-Defense Force's field-kitchen shovels?
They wash the brand-new excavator with dish soap and coat it with cooking oil before using it for the stew.
Re: #8
Saw this on TikTok yesterday — they disassemble and clean a brand-new one,
and use margarine instead of grease.
Or failing that, chicken-salt chankonabe
Plain vegetables alone sounds rough.
Taro's the whole point, though
You don't put taro in tonjiru
There's something nice about really savoring taro on its own.
The Yamagata version has beef in it, you know.
There's meat in it.
Aren't they injecting grease into the moving parts?
Of course — butter and cooking oil for that part.
I think I saw somewhere before that they use salad oil.
Actually, they use cooking oil.
The excavator used is brand new, and afterward it gets auctioned off, selling for a premium as a lucky charm.
Is it sweet?
But it looks tasty with all that green onion in it.
When I lived in Yamagata, I got invited to an imoni party thrown by friends, not the official event — it was delicious.
Actually, apparently every Tohoku prefecture has similar events, each with its own character, and they're all supposed to be good.
Is this the season Tohoku folks get restless?
Yamagata's is beef with a soy-sauce base, a little sweet.
Miyagi's is closer to tonjiru (though locals get mad if you call it that).
But there's also something great about making it outdoors on a nice day and eating it together while chatting.
It's the soy sauce that's different.
Kansai people often say Kanto soy sauce is salty, but Tohoku's is even saltier.
When I moved to Kagoshima, the supermarket had something like 30 kinds of soy sauce, but every single one was sweet — I was in agony. Eventually found
a Noda-made soy sauce (Noda being Kikkoman's hometown) at a 7-Eleven and was saved.
Depending on where you are, Kanto soy sauce can actually be way saltier. Kanagawa's is a good example.
The bucket is a custom, all-stainless-steel piece.
No paint on it at all.
Re: #105
They really thought this through!
Their approach to imoni is almost too clean.
Same here, never had it, but I'd guess it's closer to kenchinjiru.
Actually, is kenchinjiru even a regional dish?
Oh, it's soy sauce-based!
Then I guess it's like kenchinjiru with beef.
Giving people from Asia a taste of Kanto food… (trails off, implying it's bad)
Transportation costs included, of course.
Feeding Kanto food to people west of Kanto would basically be abuse.
Please donate 700 yen per bowl of imoni as a sponsorship fee.
Reserved seating is 4,500 yen for all-you-can-eat imoni.
Kids are 2,200 yen.
Is the competition really just about pot size?
I'd rather they competed on flavor.
Background and key points of this discussion
“Japan’s No. 1 Imoni Party” is an annual autumn tradition held on the banks of the Mamigasaki River in Yamagata City, famous for the spectacle of a giant excavator stirring a massive 6.5-meter-diameter pot called “Nabe Taro III.” The biggest point of disagreement on the thread was the hygiene of the excavator’s bucket: some worried that “stirring with an industrially painted bucket is gross,” while multiple replies countered that “the bucket is custom-made, unpainted stainless steel” and that “a brand-new machine is cleaned and coated in cooking oil.” The article alone doesn’t settle which account is accurate, but the event isn’t a one-off — it’s run annually for years with no reported history of food-poisoning issues. Another thread of discussion compared regional versions of the dish across Tohoku — Yamagata’s soy-sauce-and-beef version versus Miyagi’s miso-based, pork-soup-like version — with each prefecture having its own take on ingredients and seasoning. That’s a separate topic from the safety of the imoni itself, and it grew into a casual side conversation about regional food culture.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Express+) thread ““Japan’s No. 1 Imoni Party” Preps 3.2 Tons of Taro — Excavator Also Makes an Appearance — Yamagata City.”
Leave a Reply