The manganji pepper appeared at the very end of the Taisho era in the Manganji district of Maizuru, and it was entirely an accident of pollination. The Fushimi pepper, one of Kyoto's traditional vegetables, crossed naturally with California Wonder, a North American variety, and this is what came out of it.

The name says pepper. It does not taste like one at all. There is no heat in it whatsoever, and the official description specifically calls it something you can put in front of a child without any worry.

The dish itself is that pepper cooked slowly together with chirimen jako, the tiny dried sardines, in dashi, until the stock has soaked all the way into the flesh of it. Taitan is the Kyoto word for exactly that kind of slow, gentle simmering.

Across the Chutan area and in Kyoto city it counts as summer obanzai, made in ordinary kitchens without any ceremony at all, and because it takes almost no effort it also functions as a standing dish kept in the refrigerator. The harvest runs mid-May to late October. A pepper that is not hot at all, named after a small district in Maizuru, and eaten every single day for five months of the year.