


In Japan oden is available in oden-ya, restaurants which specialize in serving the stew with small seasonal side-dishes and alcoholic drinks, including sake and beer. One can find hot buffet tables filled with nerimono of all sorts: choose your favorites and enjoy a relaxing evening after work.

Oden is easy to prepare at home. The difficult part is limiting yourself to only a few of the many kinds of fish-cakes that are available. Unless you are cooking for a large group, the most convenient way to make oden at home is to buy a refrigerated or frozen package with a nice variety.
For information about some of the delicacies you might choose for your oden hot-pot, take a look at this post where I wrote about hanpen, aatsuma-age, iwashi tsumire, chikua, shrimp balls, kagosei ika maki, sankaku ganmo ichimasa, tako bei, konnyaku, shirataki, and kamaboko.
Oden is not so much a recipe as it is an opportunity to enjoy many of your favorites in one meal!
Oden is also not several other things:
Oden is also not several other things:
Currently in the news (thus high in Google searches):
Gregory Wayne Oden, Jr. an American basketball player, member of the Portland Trail Blazers
Nearly Homophones:
Odin: King of the Norse Gods
Odeon: from the ancient Greek ᾨδείον (literally “building for musical competitions”)
The Odéon Theatre (Théâtre de l’Odéon) in Paris Think of Nicklodeon!
Counter-intuitive pronunciation (and not listening too carefully):
Argumentum ad odium: an appeal to spite or a fallacy in which someone attempts to win favor
for an argument by exploiting existing negative feelings in the opposing party.
Odem (אֹדֶם or אודם) is an Israeli settlement.
Odiham is a historic village in the Hart district of Hampshire, England.
Think of: Scone, Perthshire – /ˈskuːn/ (rhymes with “spoon”)
(unlike the biscuit which is pronounced to rhyme with ‘con’ or ‘cone’);
Prinknash, Gloucestershire — /ˈprɪnɨʃ/ (prĭn′·nɪsh), /ˈɡlɒstər/;
Detective Superintendent Andrew Dalziel fictional Yorkshire detective in novels by Reginald Hill — ăn·drū dē·ăl
(unlike the biscuit which is pronounced to rhyme with ‘con’ or ‘cone’);
Prinknash, Gloucestershire — /ˈprɪnɨʃ/ (prĭn′·nɪsh), /ˈɡlɒstər/;
Detective Superintendent Andrew Dalziel fictional Yorkshire detective in novels by Reginald Hill — ăn·drū dē·ăl
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Hi Tess, I was raised in Kansai (Osaka) Japan. Japan is very much part of my life. Oden is one of those nostalgic foods that I dream of. Yum! Fae. :)
Hi Fae,
As much as I love oden, and much as I look forward to eating it in season again, I am so very much enjoying these last few summer nights. Tonight is almost too perfect. The windows and door open, twilight settling in, the chirping of insects…