The Hirshon Smoky Taberu Rayu (Japanese-Style Chili Oil with Solids) – 食べるラー油

Citizens! The Chieftain of Chilis, the Hegano of Heat – YOUR TFD! – today once again dons His asbestos suit and welding goggles to bring you another recipe guaranteed to rouse even the most somnambulant palate! My usual spice levels metaphysically enter the Buddhist “hell of burning heat”［焦熱地獄］ (Shōnetsu-jigoku), where offenders are consumed by flames. In Buddhist works, the fierce flames of this hell often symbolize the suffering of hell in general. Join Me now as we together explore the far less lethal Japanese chili oil – taberu rayu!

The term “rayu” is a Japanese adaptation of a Chinese spicy dipping sauce made by infusing sesame oil with chili peppers. Taberu Rayu (食べるラー油), translates to “edible chili oil” due to its inclusion of savory bits of onion, garlic, and other solids akin to the classic (and much better known in the West) Chinese chili crisp. Taberu Rayu very quickly rose to fame in Japan via Okinawa in 2009, with its extraordinary combination of crispy bits, and savory flavor.

You didn’t think Japanese food could be spicy? Oh Citizen – there are regional cuisines in Japan, especially in the Southern small islands near Okinawa (there’s a reason taberu rayu is from there!) that are positively NUCLEAR!

As noted in this well-informed answer from Quora regarding “is Japanese food ever spicy?”:

Yes, sometimes very spicy. But we are talking about regional food here, not the internationally known staples, such as sushi or tempura.

In particular, Hachijo food is known to use chili peppers heavily and oh, those peppers are spicy.

Hachijo cuisine, in turn, influenced Okinawan cuisine and, to some extent, Kyushu cuisine, so you might occasionally find some very spicy dishes there. Also, Japanese like to state that it is Japanese who imported peppers to Korea, the peppers which originally came from Mariana islands to Hachijo, then, via many stops, to Korea. Not sure how true, because peppers used are very different.

I will now quote near verbatim from an exceptionally well-researched history of the chili pepper in Japanese cuisine and culture I found on tsukublog.wordpress.com:

The Togarashi (Chili pepper) Jizo in Koishikawa, Tokyo (near Tokyo Dome and the Korakuen Garden – and even closer to the Denzu-in Temple). Also known as the SEKI DOMEH KOSODATEH JIZO (the Cough-Stopping Child-Rearing Jizo) this strikingly photogenic Buddhist statue (always adorned with chili-necklaces and surrounded by other chili peppers of all sorts) is where for generations those suffering from bad coughs and throat ailments have come to pray for relief.

Interestingly, the “concept” here is not that the chili-peppers hung around the neck drive away the evil energies that were thought to cause colds (like leeks – NEGI – were believed to do, when roasted and pressed to the throat), but because a woman who had lived near this spot (during the Edo Period) and died after a long illness (and whose spirit this statue was originally erected to console) had been crazy about them till her very last day. The color RED, though, of the chilis and the cap and bib, ARE thought to drive evil away. The type of dried chili pepper you see here is called “TAKA NO TSUME” (Hawk’s Talons) in Japanese.

In traditional East Asian culture color and shape bear with them great significance. Red is believed to drive away evil forces – and the fact that the chili berries grow like they are standing upright (while eating help stimulate sweating and blood flow) led to their being considered good for masculine vitality and vigor.

In Japan today, there is no lack of places at which those who like their food hot and spicy can get their fiery fixes. You can find ramen and Japanese “curry and rice” establishments that cater specifically to those who like it VERY hot. In fact, just about every restaurant that serves pasta, pizza or casseroles of some sort have hot sauce on their tables for those who’d like to spice things up to their own liking – while supermarkets carry a wide array of hot-sauces from around the worlds.

Still, Chili peppers, which came to Japan at around the same time (sometime in the 16th century) as they did to the Korean Peninsula – where (for some reason) they went on to become a MAJOR component of the national cuisine – they have never played an important role in WASHOKU, Japan’s traditional food culture, which relies on ginger, Japanese pepper (sansho), myoga, yuzu, and wasabi to spice things up.

(On the one hand, this should not be surprising at all, since Japan is a climatically temperate country, like the UK, France, Holland, etc., countries which we would never associate with spicy food. On the other hand though, it is highly thought-provoking because chilis came to Korea (also temperate) and Japan at around the same time (though the order of transmission is a matter of continued and heated debate among historians) while they quickly went on to become an ESSENTIAL, iconic component of Korean national cuisine, in Japan they only had a minor presence in traditional cookery… though a greater one, it must be said, than in the UK, France or Holland, etc.)

Despite never having been a major feature in Japan’s traditional food culture, Chili peppers have an interesting more-than-400-year-history in Japan, playing a variety of roles (some quite surprising!)… and they have long been cultivated throughout much of the archipelago (there are more than 200 distinctive varieties of chili pepper now grown in Japan, throughout the archipelgo – but most notably in Tochigi, Tokushima, Chiba and Gifu Prefecture!).

A traditional chilli-pepper amulet hung up to dry – help keep evil forces away at the same time! In China Korea and Japan the color red is believed to have the power to keep impurities away. This is combined with the chili peppers “heat” which connects it to the cleansing power of fire. It’s shape also suggest a connection to the Yang (male) force.

Chili peppers (Capsicum) are native to South and Central America and were among the “world changing” crops (along potatoes, tobacco, cacao, corn, tomatoes, etc.) that Columbus and those who followed him (subsequent Spanish and Portuguese explorers, conquistadors and traders) introduced to the wider world. Chili peppers first appear in Spanish historical records in 1493. They were immediately introduced to Europe (by the Spanish) where they planted as ornamentals, spreading to Italy and Germany by the mid 15th century before reaching Hungary where they were used to produce the now iconic spice Paprika (of which the mild versions we know did not appear until the 1920s).

It must have been the Portuguese, with all their African colonies, who helped spread chilis to that continent – and further still to its colonies and trading posts in Asia – India (Goa) and Sri Lanka… from where they spread to South East Asia. Meanwhile the Spanish brought the hot peppers directly from Mexico to the various Pacific islands they had contact with – and of course, the Philippines.

According to Sato Nobuhiro, a late Edo Period scholar, chili pepper and pumpkin seeds were brought (along with the much more impactful tobacco and fire-arms) to Bungo Province (present day Oita Prefecture on the island of Kyushu) by the Portuguese way back in the year 1542. That is why, according to Sato, chili peppers were referred to as NANBAN KOSHO (SPANISH/PORTUGUESE PEPPER).

There is documentary first-hand evidence of capsicum’s early presence in Japan, with the Portuguese Luis Frois having reported to a fellow missionary in the year 1577 that the Japanese “highly valued” pickled chili peppers.

There is another theory, however, (which appears to be widely accepted) asserting that chili peppers did not come to Japan until the 1590s – and not directly from Europeans, but from the Korean Peninsula, brought back as spoils of war (along with captive scholars, artisans, medicine-makers and tens of thousands of ears and noses taken from slain Koreans) during Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s invasions of the peninsula (part of his attempted conquest of China spanning the years 1592-1598).

This theory is supported by the writings of Edo Period scholar Kaibara Ekiken who insisted that: “They were not found in Japan in the past, but when Hideyoshi invaded Korea, the seeds were brought from there, so they are commonly called “Korean peppers”!

I think that it is Japanese geography that is at the root of this contradiction. What I mean by this is that Japan consists of several islands – and that chili peppers were probably introduced to and subsequently flourished in the mid-15th century on the island of Kyushu (not as food mind you, but as a medicine, a preventer of frost-bite (by fitting between the toes and application to the skin), and a smokey tear-gas-type weapon, not unlike today’s pepper spray).

It then only arrived on the main island of Honshu, after being brought back by Japanese soldiers who themselves had only first encountered it on the Peninsula where it had been brought in and used as by Kato Kiyomasa to create blinding smoke-screens, interrogate prisoners, and prevent frost-bite (in the same way that troops returning from the continent after the Russo-Japanese War brought back seeds of Chinese cabbage (HAKUSAI).

I am surprised though, that MANY Japanese language books on food history provide only one theory: chili peppers were first brought back to Japan by Kato Kiyomasa (one of Hideyoshi’s generals) in the 1590’s. We might be able to attribute this to a form of political correctness, with Japanese scholars and editors hesitating to say that one of Korea’s most iconic culinary features was brought to them by invaders as a weapon of war and tool of torture (exposing prisoners to chili pepper smoke was a technique still used (on occasion) during interrogations by Japanese policemen in the 20th century).

It might also be uncomfortable for Japanese historians to admit that Japan was so culturally divided (during the 16th century) – that chili peppers were introduced to Kyushu in the 1540s by Europeans… and then to Honshu, in the 1590s, by soldiers returning to their homes from Korea.

ANYWAY, no matter what the fine details are, chili peppers arrived in both Japan and Korea by the end of the 16th century. And in both countries they were first thought to be poisonous (as were tomatoes in other part of the world) and were not consumed as regular food until the early 17th century.

The only really hot and spicy traditional food I know of in the Kanto area is this: TEPPO-ZUKE (rifle-pickles) – a typical (though very surprising) pickle served in Chiba and Ibaraki Prefectures – a gourd (hollowed out like a rifle-barrel) stuffed with chili peppers (like bullets) wrapped in shiso leaves pickled in soy sauce and mirin (sweet sake). These pickles are one of the famous souvenirs found around the Shinsho-ji Temple (Narita-san) in Narita.

It was more than 2 decades after the Korean invasions, with the coming of peace and the advent of the Edo Period, that chili peppers began to be regularly consumed – as a seasoning (though its image still remained medicinal) – in what would come to be called SHICHI TOGARASHI (or NANAIRO TOGARASHI) – Seven Spice Chili Pepper. This condiment is sprinkled on UDON and SOBA noodles, fortifying those dishes very much nutritionally, and is also used for pickles, miso soup, tempura, etc.

First marketed by a Chinese-style herbalist whose had a shop in Yagenbori, Ryogoku in Edo, SHICHIMI TOGORASHI, a mixture of chili powder with seven other ingredients – grilled chili powder, poppy seeds, hemp seeds, Japanese pepper (sansho), black sesame, and orange peel (in the Tsukuba area they make shichimi with the peel of FUKURE MIKAN, a unique local citrus).

The original SHICHIMI TOGARASHI Shop, YAGENBORI, opened 400 years ago, was… and still is a big hit, with two branches near Asakusa’s Senso-ji temple.

In fact, it was such a big hit in front of the Senso-ji temple – becoming an easy to carry souvenir for folks back home – that other great “temple-towns” among them Kiyomizu in Kyoto (SHICHIMIYA, est. 1655) and Zenko-ji in Nagano (YAWATAYA ISOGORO), also had their own SHICHIMI shops open – which are still in business today! The beautiful traditional containers SHICHIMI is sold in make it even more of an attractive product.

For purists, there is ICHIMI (ONE-SPICE) – which indicates that a dispenser or packet contains chili powder only. It can also be called ICHIMI TOGARASHI or O-KARA and it is also mostly used in Japan for sprinkling on UDON or SOBA noodles or MISO RAMEN.

The YAGENBORI shichimi togarashi shop in Edo (Tokyo) has always prided itself on its high quality ingredients. Shinjuku, now one of the most highly “urbanized” area of Tokyo was one famous for its chilis. The ones produced there were called NAITO CHILIS because they grew on the land that belonged to the Naitos, important retainers of the Tokugawa Family (whose holdings included what is now the Shinjuku Gyoen Park). In recent years an effort is being made on the part of local residents to “revive” Naito chili pepper production in the area – and you might very well see them sold and promoted on a visit there.

Two other traditional products made with chili peppers are KANZURI, a fermented chili pepper paste seasoning made exclusively by one company in Niigata Prefecture, and MOMIJI OROSHI  which is grated-radish and chili peppers (TFD note – this is known as “maple in snow”) – served with FUGU (puffer fish) sashimi. 

One more traditional chili pepper based product is YUZU KOSHO, a seasoning which is now gaining recognition worldwide. It is a fermented paste made with the peel of a citrus fruit called YUZU, chili peppers and salt. There are many varieties now of this originally Kyushi based condiment and interestingly the name KOSHO, which means black pepper is used to mean chili peppers (called Togarashi in standard Japanese)

Meanwhile chili peppers were incorporated into the traditional system of oriental medical in the belief that the heat they helped generate in the body and the perspiration they induced was also helpful for easing physical pain and curing gastro-intestinal ailments such as hemorrhoids and diarrhea (besides its viagra-like effects).

They were also used as amulets – strung together and suspended by slender ropes or straw or bundled up into bunches and hung at doors and windows – to keep bad luck and evil energies away (as they are – much more extensively – in Korea…) Izumo (the home of the Izumo Grand Shrine) in Shimane Prefecture, has its own special Chili Pepper amulet!

They have also been used to keep unwanted insects and animals away. Even today there are products like Chili pepper coils that are lit to release a smoke that keeps bears, boars and deer, etc. out of your veggies. The chili pepper smoke, used by Hideyoshi’s armies in Korea (as a form of tear gas) and by Japanese authorities over the centuries during interrogations was also used by YAMABUSHI mountain holy-men for their ascetic practices, torturing themselves with the stuff.

The smoke was also used for exorcisms (what we now recognize as mental illness was traditionally seen as spirit possession – usually by the spirit of a fox (a phenomenon called KITSUNE TSUKI). One way of driving the spirit out was by exposing it to chili-pepper smoke.

Dr. Junichi Saga recorded the story of a man who had seen his father killed during one of these chili-pepper exorcisms (in the 20th century!). Here is an excerpt from my translation of the story:

“The Shinto priest said, “That is one stubborn fox! Not even a rifle can drive him away! We’ll have to take more extreme measures!” And he explained to the villagers what had to be done. He had them hang a mosquito net up in the prayer hall and then they forced my struggling father under it. Once in there, they bound him up from head to toe with a rope. Then they piled up some chili peppers on a portable roasting grill. The idea was to roast the peppers and drive the fox-spirit away with smoke.

The whole village came to watch. The grill was lit and fanned vigorously – and the peppers started smoking. Soon the prayer hall was filled with ribbons of twirling smoke. Everyone was coughing and had tears streaming down their faces. It was hard to breath. Father was all bound up and squirming around like crazy. With their teary eyes, some of the men struggled to hold him down. The priest meanwhile, was waving his fringed wand, loudly chanting some incantations, urging the fox-spirit to take its leave.

It went on like that for three days, with the chili pepper smoke and the prayers. And then, suddenly, my father stopped struggling. Instead, he started growing weaker and weaker – and soon he was dead.”

One of the most commonly used Japanese chili peppers Japanese home-cooking is the SHISHITO TOGARASHI. Available at all supermarkets this variety is interesting in that maybe only about one pepper in every bunch is hot!

As can be expected, a plant that has played so many roles in Japanese history and culture features as a motif in poetry – and there are surprisingly many HAIKU (TFD NOTE: this links to My acclaimed haiku e-book!) that use TOGARASHI as a KIGO key-word for autumn – some by Japan’s greatest poets (maybe I will get around to translating some soon!) Anyway, it just shows you how chili peppers can spice up your life without putting them in your food!

Unlike traditional Chinese chili oils (lájiāoyóu, 辣椒油), taberu rayu leans into sesame oil rather than chili – it’s less about setting your mouth on fire and more about rounded flavors combined with heat.  As you may have guessed, taberu rayu is indeed of Chinese origin, but it has a surprisingly short history dating back only to around the 17th century. At that time, chili peppers were introduced to China from South America by Portuguese traders (which means there was no ma po tofu before the 17th century!) and they probably made their way to Japan by the same trading ships on the way home to Europe.

Known for its rich blend of distinctive flavors, Japanese taberu rayu is distinguished by its medley of ingredients, such as chili peppers, sesame oil, garlic, and spices, forming a harmonious symphony of flavors that pay homage to the might of Japanese culinary prowess. Rayu (properly spelled in English as rāyu to denote a long “ah sound”) is the Japanese term for chili oil, and it is often included as a table condiment at ramen and Chinese restaurants. The most common way of enjoying rayu in Japan is mixing a few drops with vinegar and/or soy sauce to create a spicy dipping sauce for gyoza dumplings.

Most common in izakaya (bars serving food), ramen bars, and gyoza (dumpling) specialty eateries, rayu can be a sleeping tiger – much like shishito peppers! Nine out of ten are mild and one is a deadly kick in the teeth with burning spice – and there is no way to know in advance which is which! Most taberu rayu falls on the mild-to-medium scale of heat – but since there is no standardized recipe to make it, some Chefs with asbestos lining their mouths WILL make it Hunan-level hot – and that is VERY hot indeed! Mine is about a 6.5 on the heat scale – it won’t disintegrate your stomach lining, unlike other recipes here on TFD!

Taberu rayu falls into the “komiabura” (香味油) classification, which is Japanese for “flavoring oil.” It’s not an exaggeration that this ingredient is a key determining factor in the taste of ramen. The backbone of this recipe is actually sesame oil, and there is only one sesame oil I can endorse – Kadoya brand from Japan, which you can easily buy here. The primary heat in taberu rayu comes from the incendiary Japanese ichimi (one flavor) togarashi (chili pepper) powder – as a fine powder, this stuff releases ALL its capsaicin into the oil – buy the real deal from here.

Shichimi spice blend (shichimi = seven flavor) is very common as a spice blend used for ramen, udon, and anything where a complex blend of flavors is needed – My version of shichimi is transcendent, but a very good commercial blend can be purchased from here. Sansho is the Japanese first cousin to Sichuan peppercorns and adds a numbing effect and a citrus aroma/flavor as well, excellent-quality sansho powder may be purchased from here.

Yuzu kosho is a reasonably well known condiment, which is grated yuzu (a Japanese citrus) peel with salt and chili. I personally prefer the more expensive but far more rounded flavor of kanzuri, which is aged for six years and is fermented with koji, a Japanese mold used in fermentation. You can buy kanzuri from here and premium red yuzu kosho from here. Lastly, My one deviation from the classic recipe – I like a subtle smoky taste in taberu rayu and add it by using smoked Spanish paprika instead of the classic sweet paprika – buy a great brand from here. It also adds a blazing red color to the oil!

Citizens, taberu rayu is about to become your new go-to spicy condiment! 😀

Following our new custom, here is what ChatGPT thinks of My recipe.

Battle on –  the Generalissimo

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