The Japanese winter hot pot dish with boiled eggs, daikon, and fish cakes is oden. It is a type of nabemono, or Japanese one-pot dish, in which ingredients simmer gently in a light, soy-flavored dashi broth.
Common additions include konnyaku, tofu, potatoes, kelp rolls, and various processed fish cakes. The ingredients absorb the broth as they cook, and karashi mustard is often served alongside them. Recipes differ substantially by region and household, so there is no single fixed ingredient list.
Oden evolved from dengaku, in which tofu or konnyaku was boiled and served with miso. Over time, cooks shifted toward simmering ingredients in dashi, creating the form now recognized as oden. It became especially associated with cold-weather eating.
Oden is commonly sold at food stalls, izakayas, and Japanese convenience stores. Shizuoka oden is a notable regional variation, using a darker broth and skewering every ingredient. Chankonabe, by contrast, is a protein-rich hot pot associated with sumo wrestlers.