Rice dishes
Hebo Meshi
Hebo meshi — rice mixed with simmered giant hornet larvae
Adult and larval giant hornets are simmered sweet and savory, then folded into freshly cooked rice. Said to have served as a prized protein source across the mountains from Shinshu to Okumikawa, it's now more often served as a treat for guests.
- Origin: Aichi
- About 250 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Hebo meshi is made by simmering adult and larval digger wasps, called 'hebo' locally, in a sweet soy sauce, then mixing them into freshly cooked rice. 'Hebo' refers to the larvae of ground-nesting wasps such as the Asian black-tailed hornet. In the mountainous area stretching from Shinshu to Oku-Mikawa, hebo were once said to be a valuable source of protein, and today the dish is said to be served as a special treat for guests.
How it's made
The hebo are pan-fried gently so as not to crush them, then simmered with soy sauce, sugar, and mirin to make a tsukudani-style preparation. Rice and the hebo are cooked together in a rice cooker, then roughly mixed together at the end. The adults and larvae are said to offer different textures. Hebo are also reportedly used in tsukudani, a sweet simmered preserve, and in the sauce for hebo gohei-mochi.
Why it took this shape
Because the wasps nest underground, hunters are said to track them by taking advantage of their habit of carrying food straight back to the nest. Nests were once often found along rice paddy edges, but are said to have moved into the mountains, partly due to pesticide use. Every autumn, a contest to judge the weight of wasp nests is reportedly held, drawing crowds where hebo meshi and hebo gohei-mochi are sold.
Before you go
- How to use a convenience storeA quick guide to choosing rice balls and hot snacks, buying coffee, paying by cash, IC card, or tap payment, using the eat-in corner, and sorting your trash — the basics for a first visit.
- Station food and ekiben (station bento)Where and when to find ekiben (station bento) before it sells out, etiquette for eating on board, how standing soba and udon stalls work, and where to find souvenirs sold inside the station.
- Soraben and airport diningA guide to what soraben means and how it differs from ekiben, whether to buy before or after security, etiquette for eating on board, airport restaurants, and things to check before buying food souvenirs to take home.
Dishes in the same style
- Aburafu DonDeep-fried wheat gluten, shaped into a log, is simmered in a sweet-savory broth and set with egg over rice, katsudon-style — a Tome City bowl said to trace to a tofu shop's shelf-stable gluten product, later turned into a bowl dish by a local innkeeper.
- Aburi-zushiNigiri with just its surface flash-seared by torch or hot iron. Unlike Edomae's shigoto curing for keeping, the searing here is done purely for the change in aroma and fat it brings — a relatively recent way of eating sushi.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Aichi
- Funa MisoCrucian carp is simmered slowly with soybeans for around five hours, then finished in a sauce of red miso and coarse sugar. A freshwater fish dish of the Kiso rivers' lower basin, made with fatty winter carp simmered until the bones soften through.
- Gohei MochiFreshly cooked non-glutinous rice is pounded, pressed flat on a skewer, and grilled with a miso glaze. Said to have originated in the mountainous Chubu region, it's traditionally made the night before a festival praying for safety in mountain work.
- Aichi HakozushiVinegared rice is packed into a wooden frame, topped with shrimp, eel, shiitake, and egg arranged diagonally, and pressed. Placing toppings on the diagonal so everyone gets a fair share of each is said to be a feature of the Owari and western Mikawa style, made for celebrations.
- Iga ManjuSweet bean paste is wrapped in rice flour dough, then coated with dyed sticky rice grains. One account ties the name to the grains' resemblance to a chestnut's spiny husk, and in the western Mikawa region it's said to be offered to Hina dolls at the Doll Festival.
- 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.
- Moroko ZushiMoroko, a small carp-family river fish, is simmered sweet and savory, then arranged diagonally over pressed sushi rice in a wooden frame. Said to be a form of hakozushi from the water towns of the Owari region, with dwindling moroko catches now sometimes substituted with hae.