Rice dishes
Daisen Okowa
Daisen Okowa — soy-seasoned sticky rice steamed with mountain vegetables
Shiitake, burdock, and chicken are cooked into sticky rice seasoned with soy, a dish from the foot of Mount Daisen. Said to trace back to warrior monks preparing it before battle to pray for victory, it was later served at the horse-and-cattle market by Daisen-ji temple and carried on into festivals and hospitality since.
- Origin: Tottori Daisen
- About 560 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Daisen okowa is a soy-flavored sticky rice dish made by cooking mochi rice together with shiitake, burdock, chestnut, konnyaku, and fried tofu, seasoned with dashi, soy sauce, and sugar — a specialty of the western region around Mount Daisen. Ingredients vary from household to household, sometimes including wild mountain vegetables or, in some areas, chikuwa fish cake, and the dish draws its rich flavor from the seasonal bounty found at the foot of the mountain.
How it's made
Mochi rice is mixed with shiitake, burdock, chestnut, konnyaku, and fried tofu, then seasoned with dashi, soy sauce, and sugar and cooked together. The exact ingredients differ by family, with some adding wild greens, local vegetables, or, in certain areas, chikuwa fish cake. The dish is thought to have spread into home kitchens from a vegetarian version once served to those training at Daisenji temple.
Why it took this shape
The dish is said to trace back to warrior monks who once cooked rice with wild birds and mountain herbs to pray for victory before heading into battle, a practice later carried on as festival and celebratory fare. In the Meiji era, it is reported to have been served to cattle traders at the livestock market held at Daisenji's Bakuroza grounds, and to have doubled as a packed lunch for pilgrims visiting the mountain. It came to be called "Daisen okowa," after the national park at the mountain's foot, only from the Meiji era onward — before that, it was reportedly known as "Aseri okowa," after the old district name Aseri.
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 Tottori
- Ago ChikuwaChikuwa made from the surimi of flying fish, called "ago" in Tottori. A knife through the firm grilled skin sends up a fragrant crackle, and it turns out darker than ordinary chikuwa. It's a taste of early summer, in season through the fish's spawning run from spring into summer.
- Akagarei no KomaburiRoe-bearing red flounder is sliced into sashimi and tossed with its own boiled, crumbled eggs, a dish from around the Amijiro area of Iwami Town. Said to have descended from a similar dish made with crucian carp roe, it pairs rich eggs with mild, fatty winter flounder for festivals and New Year's.
- Azuki ZouniSoft round rice cakes are added to a broth of simmered red beans, the mainstream style of New Year's zoni in Tottori. Red beans have long been thought to ward off misfortune, and the dish is said to be simmered on New Year's morning with the year's first water and a purified flame, then shared among family.
- Daisen-doriA branded chicken said to be raised end-to-end, from breeding stock to processing, by producers at the foot of Mount Daisen — free-ranged longer than usual on an antibiotic-free feed aimed at balancing fat and flavor.
- Daisen RubyBred at Tottori Prefecture's livestock station by crossing a sow of the oleic-acid-rich Daisen Akabuta line with a Berkshire boar, said to inherit both breeds' fat quality and tenderness.
- Dondoroke MeshiNamed for the crackling sound of tofu frying in hot oil, likened to thunder — "dondoroke" in local dialect — this is a rice dish from eastern and central Tottori. It's said to date to when each hamlet had its own tofu shack turning home-grown soybeans into tofu, using nothing but local ingredients.