Dried squid and carrot, cut into fine matching strips. A marinade of coarse sugar or mirin, sake, and soy sauce. That is the entire dish.

It can be eaten after half a day. Left for several, the squid softens as it takes up the liquid, the carrot gives way, and the seasoning gets all the way in. It has been made for over a century in the northern part of Fukushima's Nakadori, around Fukushima city, and it was originally a winter store, food for the months when snow means nothing is coming out of the ground. It is treated as necessary at new year.

It closely resembles matsumae-zuke from Hokkaido. The difference is kombu, which matsumae-zuke has and this does not. Otherwise the two are close enough that the resemblance demands an explanation.

One account connects them directly. In 1807 the Matsumae domain was transferred to Yanagawa here in Fukushima, and its retainers encountered this dish. In 1821 the domain was moved back to Ezo, and they took it with them and added the kombu that was local to where they had returned. Whether that is the direction of travel, or the reverse, has not been settled, and both regions seem content to keep making their own and letting the question stand.