Bokumeshi

Bokumeshi is a rice dish made by mixing steamed, chopped eel and simmered, shredded burdock root into freshly cooked rice. Yoshida is an eel-farming area along the Oi River, where ponds fed by the river's underground water raise eel prized for its soft, tender flesh. Diagonally sliced green beans and shredded egg crepe are added on top for color.

Burdock root is shredded and boiled, and eel is steamed and finely chopped, then the two are simmered together. The mixture, cooking liquid included, is folded into freshly cooked rice, then topped with boiled green beans cut on the diagonal and shredded egg crepe. It is mainly a home-cooked dish, though it is reportedly also sold at some shops in the area.

Eel farming in Yoshida is said to have begun in the Taisho era, when repeated flooding of the Oi River left rice paddies unusable, and ponds were built there instead, drawing on the river's underground water. The name comes from 'bokkui,' meaning thick wooden stakes, and the dish reportedly spread from eels too large to sell being used as staff meals at the eel farms. It became a household staple once eel was cheap and plentiful, though it is said to be made less often now that prices have risen.