Written by Aomori Prefecture
Aomori: Northern Japan’s ‘Blue Forest’
Aomori Prefecture is located in the northern tip of the main island of Japan, Honshu. As the Aomori is surrounded by sea, tourists and locals can enjoy a wide variety of fresh seafood such as scallop, tuna and mackerel.
Aomori is also well known for producing agricultural products such as apples, rice and garlic.
Today, we would like to introduce to you a local cuisine called ‘Senbei-jiru’. Senbei-jiru is a Japanese style hotpot with crackers (senbei) made from flour, and mainly eaten in the eastern Aomori region.
In Japan, crackers are popular snacks that are usually made from rice. However, in eastern Aomori, where the temperatures in summer are usually below average in Japan due to north easterly wind from the Northern Pacific, rice is not a crop that can be easily grown and harvested. It has been said that because of this, people in this region started making crackers from flour instead. 
The senbei produced in the eastern Aomori region is called Nanbu senbei, and it is the centrepiece of senbei-jiru. The senbei is usually broken up into pieces and placed in the senbei-jiru pot together with meat, fish, vegetables and mushrooms cooked in a soy sauce, miso or salt based soup. Once cooked, the senbei pieces become chewy like pasta.
Senbei-jiru is a widely popular dish amongst the locals and has been previously selected as one of the top 100 local dishes in Japan. In addition, it was also popularly voted as the no. 1 national ‘B-grade gourmet’ dish in Japan in 2012. Senbei-jiru is a favourite of Joe Fujishima, who is one of our prefectural staff currently on a secondment at CLAIR Sydney. Joe is originally from eastern Aomori’s Hachinohe City.
Besides senbei-jiru, Aomori also has many delicious food and amazing Japanese sake. Additionally, Aomori has many attractive tourism destinations and events for international and domestic travellers to enjoy. Locals in Aomori always look forward to welcoming visitors to the area!
