# Kanpyo-maki ｜ Our Regional Cuisines

**Cuisine Name**: Kanpyo-maki

**Region**: Our Regional Cuisines

## Main Lore Areas
Around Tokyo Bay, all of Tokyo

## Main Ingredients Used
Rice, dried bottle gourd, roasted seaweed, vinegar, sugar

## History, Origin, and Related Events
Kanpyo-maki is a type of sushi roll that is made by boiling kanpyo in water to give it a sweet-salty flavor and then wrapping it with vinegared rice and seaweed.Kanpyo-maki is an indispensable dish as a standard item in Edomae-sushi. Kanpyo is a kind of dried food―thin strips of gourd pulp dried in the sun. Back then, the phrase 'norimaki' referred to 'kanpyo-maki,' and norimaki was generally wrapped in the shape of the Japanese letter 'no' regardless of being thin or thick, and it was one of the highlights of the professionals’ skill in rolling up the core ingredients so that they would not get loose.Also, roasted nori (roasted seaweed) is essential for kanpyo rolls. Nori is a type of seaweed that has been eaten with shellfish since ancient times in Japan, and during the Edo period, nori farming became popular in the area from present-day Shinagawa to Omori, where the sheet forming method by rinsing it like paper took root. At that time, Asakusa had a paper manufacturing industry that produced handmade recycled paper called “Asakusa-gami,” and the roasted seaweed of the Edo period came to be called “Asakusa-nori,” taking inspiration from that manufacturing method. Thanks to aquaculture, even ordinary people could obtain roasted nori, and in the Taisho period, people began to make norimaki at home. While everyone has eaten kanpyo-maki as a sushi dish in the Kanto region, it is still unfamiliar even today in the Kansai region as futo-maki is the mainstream there. Kanpyo-maki can be said to be a chic food unique to Edomae.

## Opportunities and Times of Eating Habits
In the Edo period, sushi came to be eaten mainly on honored days due to the style of high-class sushi restaurants. Today, due to the diversification of sushi restaurants, sushi is eaten on a daily basis as well as on honored days. It is also eaten as a daily food at home.

## How to Eat
Soak the dried bottle gourd in water. Boil until sweet and salty. Lay the bamboo mat. Put roasted nori and vinegared rice on it. Roll it with the boiled kanpyo at the core. Cut into bite-size pieces and eat.

## Efforts for Preservation and Succession
It is always included in Edomae-sushi, and now that the form of sushi has diversified, it is widely sold at sushi shops, sushi chain stores, supermarket deli sections, and convenience stores.

## Ingredients
- Roasted nori (full size): 3 sheets
- White rice (cooked hard): About 2 cups
- Sushi vinegar: About 50 ml
- Dried bottle gourd: 30 g
- Water: 600 ml
- Sake: 100 ml
- Sugar: 4 tbsp.
- Soy sauce: 4 tbsp.
- Mirin: 2 tbsp.
- Salt: Appropriate quantity

## Recipe
1. 1. Boil the dried bottle gourd. Wash the dried bottle gourd in plenty of water and rub with salt. Let stand for 10 minutes, then boil for 10 minutes.
2. 2. In a pot, add water, sake, sugar, soy sauce, and mirin. Simmer the gourd over low heat. When the liquid has evaporated, remove from the pan.
3. 3. Make the vinegared rice. Add the sushi vinegar to 2 cups of freshly cooked, rather firm white rice. Using a rice scoop, stir the rice in a cutting motion. When each grain is shiny and the sushi vinegar has been absorbed, cool it to body temperature with an uchiwa fan.
4. 4. Spread out the sushi mat, top with the nori cut in half, and spread the sushi rice evenly, leaving about 2 cm of the top.
5. 5. Line up two pieces of kanpyo slightly above the center of the rice. Lift them all the way up to the other end of the sushi rice (the blank part of the seaweed). Roll it over the sushi roll. While holding down the bottom part of the sushi roll, use your other hand to pull the sushi roll along with the mat towards you. Tighten the roll to make it complete.

## Provider Information
Recipes vary depending on the region and home.

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