Yamato no Zoni is a traditional local dish from Nara Prefecture.
This white miso soup features tofu, turnip (Iwai daikon), Kintoki carrot, satoimo (taro), and round mochi. In Nara’s culinary customs, tofu symbolizes a white-walled warehouse, representing the wish for one to be built. Round mochi and sliced vegetables express the hope for family harmony throughout the year, while the yellow color of kinako (roasted soybean flour) signifies a wish for a good rice harvest—each ingredient carries its own meaning.

Prepared in households around New Year's, Yamato no Zoni is also served in school lunches and cooking classes, making it familiar to younger generations.
In addition to being enjoyed as a soup, a unique custom in Nara is to remove the mochi and eat it with kinako—a practice seen in many parts of the prefecture.

The vegetables and tofu are simmered to create an umami-rich broth with white miso, enhancing the flavor and making the dish even more enjoyable.

Kaki no ha zushi are bite-sized pressed sushi made from vinegared rice topped with salted saba mackerel wrapped in a persimmon leaf. The eco-friendly persimmon leaf has anti-bacterial benefits. During the Edo period (1603-1868) the Kinokawa river in Nara was a way that seafood was transported from the ocean. Before refrigeration the seafood was preserved in salt. The salted mackerel was placed on bite-sized bundles of rice and wrapped in a persimmon leaf. A heavy stone from the river was set on the sushi overnight. It is believed this is the origins of kaki no ha zushi.

Both seafood and rice were precious at that time in the Yoshino area of Nara. Kaki no ha zushi was served at summer festivals and at the start of the boating season. During this same period in the Higashi Yoshino area houba, Japanese big-leaf magnolia leaves, were used to wrap sushi. In other parts of Japan sasa broad-leaf bamboo leaves and other leaves that have natural anti-bacterial properties have long been used to wrap sushi.

Salted and vinegared fish have less moisture than fresh fish and is harder to spoil. Additionally, the umami in the fish is enriched. Killing two birds with one stone by wrapping sushi with the leaves.