Chagayu

Chagayu is rice cooked in a generous amount of water flavored with tea. Locals reportedly know it fondly as okaisan. It's said to have grown out of a way to stretch scarce rice by increasing the water, and in the Iga area, where farmland was limited and white rice precious, wheat rice and this tea porridge were reportedly the everyday staple. It's said to be more appetizing chilled in summer, and seasonal additions like sweet potato or corn are sometimes stirred in.

Rice is rinsed lightly while a cloth tea bag, locally called a chanbukuro, steeps briefly in the pot's water before the rice is added and cooked together. Once the tea has infused enough, the bag is lifted out with chopsticks and the porridge is left to steam a little longer before serving. Hojicha, roasted senna tea, or homegrown tea are said to work better than green tea, and while it's normally eaten hot, many households reportedly chill it in summer.

Chagayu is said to date back far enough that a tea-based porridge called gobo was reportedly eaten at the lodgings after the Omizutori rite at Nigatsudo Hall of Todaiji Temple in the Nara period. In the Iga area, where farmland was scarce and white rice precious, porridge is thought to have taken hold as a way to stretch rice, with tea grown nearby folded into an everyday dish. The Kayumi district of Iinan, Matsusaka, known as a tea-producing area, is said to have eaten it especially often.