Rice dishes
Chameshi
Chameshi — rice cooked in barley tea with roasted soybeans
Roasted soybeans are steeped in hot roasted barley tea, and rice is then cooked in that same tea — a dish from the old post town of Imajo, said to descend from Nara's 'nara-chameshi'. It is said to be indispensable at memorial services, Honkoko, and for daughters visiting home.
- Origin: Fukui Minamiechizen
- About 330 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Rice cooked with roasted soybeans that have been steeped in bancha tea, so the tea's toasty bitterness layers with the soybeans' aroma, and a splash of sake stirred in at the end lifts a faint sweetness up through the nose. The tea's slight astringency meets a hint of soy sauce's saltiness in a plain dish said to deliver both protein and warmth in one bowl through the winter.
How it's made
Roasted, skinned soybeans are steeped in hot bancha tea for about an hour, then fresh bancha and soy sauce are added to that liquid and brought to a boil before washed rice and the soaked soybeans go in to cook. Sake is stirred in just before the rice rests, to round out the aroma. In Imajo, some soba shops are said to serve it alongside the local grated-daikon soba.
Why it took this shape
The dish is said to trace back to travelers who carried a Nara food custom into Imajo, a post town on the old road, where it's said to have grown out of a tea-simmered rice porridge. Combining bancha tea with soybeans is said to raise the dish's nutritional value, which is said to be why it settled in as part of memorial and Hoonko meals, and as a dish made to welcome a daughter home on a visit.
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 Fukui
- Atsuage no NitaThick fried tofu, blanched and scored with a cross cut, is simmered sweet-savory in dashi, soy sauce, and mirin with a dash of ginger juice. Fukui leads the country in fried-tofu consumption, and this dish is said to have moved from a Honkoko feast dish into everyday cooking.
- Choju NamasuGround sesame is worked into a paste with miso, thick fried tofu, mustard, and vinegar, then tossed with shredded daikon, carrot, and snap peas — a New Year salad whose name literally wishes long life, also said to appear at memorial services and Honkoko.
- Decchi YokanSweet red bean paste is set with agar, sugar, and a pinch of salt into a thin, water-yokan-like winter confection. It is said to have begun when a young apprentice, home for New Year from a Kyoto shop, stretched a bar of yokan with water to share with neighbors, eaten by the kotatsu.
- Echizen Oroshi SobaA cold soba from Echizen, Fukui, topped with grated daikon and bonito flakes. It is said to originate with a soba maker a local lord brought from Kyoto to promote buckwheat as an emergency food crop.
- Fu no Karashi-aeRehydrated wheat gluten and salted cucumber are dressed with local mustard, miso, and vinegar — a shojin dish for Honkoko. Fukui's mustard is milled whole without degreasing for a sharper aroma, and gluten from Echizen, tinted red in part, adds color, it is said.