Hot pot & soups
Bote Cha
Bote Cha — tea whisked to a froth over black-bean rice, a temple festival treat
Roasted tea is whisked to a froth with a salted bamboo whisk and poured over black-bean rice with toppings like bamboo shoot — a dish from Matsuyama. Said to have been devised by a domain lord's household during a period of enforced frugality, it's still served at a temple's springtime Buddha festival.
- Origin: Ehime
- About 670 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Tea whipped into froth with a bamboo whisk piles up softly in the bowl, and it is said that people scoop it up with black-bean rice before the foam has a chance to settle — an unusual kind of tea-over-rice dish. It is said to have begun in the Matsuyama area during the domain era, when a decree calling for frugality led the lord's household women to devise it as a way to entertain without costly ingredients. Matsuyama had long been a center of tea ceremony, and the idea of whisking the tea into foam is said to have come from that tradition.
How it's made
Wolfberry leaves, roasted green tea, and soybeans are simmered together to make the tea, which is then whisked into foam with a bamboo whisk dipped in salt. Into that foam goes black-bean rice along with minced bamboo shoot, shiitake, freeze-dried tofu, pickled daikon, and butterbur. The trick, it is said, is to scoop it up with chopsticks while the foam in the bowl is still light and airy.
Why it took this shape
At a temple in Matsuyama's Sarukawara neighborhood, the dish is said to have been served to worshippers during a festival marking the Buddha's birth, and because it was well received, it is said to have continued on, later paired with vegetarian temple dishes as well. Because the whisking takes real effort, it is said to have been enjoyed mainly by people who practiced tea ceremony, and today it is regarded as an indulgent, labor-intensive tea-over-rice. In the past, people are also said to have brewed wolfberry leaves grown around the house into a tea valued for its health benefits.
Before You Go
- Foods to look for in winterA guide to foods often seen in Japan around winter — nabe hot pot, fugu, oysters, crab, year-end soba, and osechi — with rough pointers for finding them.
- Osechi and zoni for the New YearA guide to the meaning behind osechi's tiered boxes, the regional differences in zoni (square vs. round mochi, clear vs. miso broth), and the nanakusa-gayu custom.
- Setsubun: ehomaki and lucky beansA guide to ehomaki, the uncut sushi roll said to be eaten facing a lucky direction on Setsubun, and to mamemaki, the bean-throwing custom with roasted lucky beans.
Dishes in the same style
- Aichi Miso OdenA pot of sweet red miso sits in the center of the simmering pot, and daikon, tofu, and other ingredients simmered in dashi are dipped into it before eating. While soy-based Kanto-style oden spread in Edo, Aichi is said to have settled on dipping in soybean miso instead.
- Aichi ZoniSquare mochi and mochina, a traditional Owari green, are served in a plain clear broth for New Year — a notably simple zoni. It's speculated that using miso so often in daily cooking is exactly why a clear broth is chosen for this festive occasion, deliberately leaving miso out.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Ehime
- EbitenSmall shrimp are ground shell and all, worked with white fish and tofu, and fried into a cake — a fish-paste product from eastern Ehime. The salt is kept light to let the tofu's sweetness and the shrimp's aroma come through, with the ground shell left in for a gritty bite.
- Igisu DofuIgisu seaweed and raw soybean flour are simmered into stock and chilled firm like agar, a dish from Imabari. Its cool texture is meant to coax back a summer appetite, and households differ over whether to fold in shrimp or leave it plain.
- SatsumaGrilled fish is flaked and worked into barley miso, thinned with a stock from its own bones, and ladled over hot barley rice — a dish of southern Ehime. Said to have started as a fisherman's trick for making dry barley rice easier to eat, with the fish varying by area and household.
- Tai SomenA whole sea bream is simmered and set on a large platter of boiled somen noodles, the cooking broth doubling as a dipping sauce. The noodles are linked to the Tanabata weaver-star legend and the fish to good fortune, and the dish has long been served to family at weddings and milestone birthdays.
- TaimeshiEastern Ehime cooks a whole sea bream into the rice pot; the south instead lays raw fillets marinated in egg and soy over hot rice. Considered an auspicious fish, it appears at celebrations too, and which style a household follows tends to run by region.
- Ehime Tako MeshiOctopus from the Iyo Sea is cut into pieces and cooked into rice with kelp and root vegetables. It's said to have begun with fishermen simmering their catch right on board, and the finishing touch of mikan peel on top is distinctly Ehime.