Dondoroke Meshi

Dondoroke meshi is a rice dish cooked with tofu and locally grown vegetables, passed down across Tottori's eastern and central regions. "Dondoroke" is dialect for thunder, and the dish is said to take its name from the crackling sound tofu makes as it fries in a hot pan, likened to a peal of thunder. Seasonal carrot, burdock, and scallion are combined with dried shiitake and fried tofu for a light, mildly seasoned dish.

Tofu is fried first, followed by vegetables and fried tofu added to the same pan. The mixture then goes into a rice cooker together with rice and dashi broth to cook through. Chicken or konnyaku are sometimes added, and the light seasoning lets the natural flavor of each ingredient come through. Originally a true takikomi rice dish cooked all together, it is said to have shifted toward a mixed-rice style, with the ingredients fried first, once rice cookers became common in the middle of the Showa era.

Tofu was once a precious source of protein, and villages are said to have shared communal tofu huts where neighbors gathered to make tofu from home-grown soybeans. The dish was reportedly made without fail whenever rice planting finished, farm work reached a break, or villagers gathered together, and because it spoiled easily, it was mainly eaten in the cold season. Originally made with vegetables alone, chicken is said to have been added only once households began keeping chickens in the Showa era.