Rice dishes
Taimeshi
Taimeshi — whole sea bream cooked into rice, or laid raw over it in egg-soy sauce
Eastern Ehime cooks a whole sea bream into the rice pot; the south instead lays raw fillets marinated in egg and soy over hot rice. Considered an auspicious fish, it appears at celebrations too, and which style a household follows tends to run by region.
- Origin: Ehime
- About 670 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Fresh-cooked rice comes flecked with sea bream that falls apart at a touch, its sweetness and savor building with every bite. The dish stays close to just sea bream, rice, and kelp, though the two ends of the prefecture handle it differently. In the Toyo area to the north, a whole sea bream is cooked into the rice, then flaked and folded through it. In the Nanyo area to the south, raw fillets are steeped in a mix of soy sauce, mirin, egg, and sesame, then spooned with the marinade over hot rice. Sea bream raised in fast currents such as the Kurushima Strait is said to grow especially firm and springy.
How it's made
Rice is rinsed an hour before cooking, and the sea bream is scaled and gutted. Water and seasoning go into the cooker with the rice, kelp is laid on top, and the whole fish sits over that as it cooks. Once done, the fish is lifted out, boned, flaked, and folded through the rice. The marinated version from Nanyo is said to have taken shape as something fishermen could put together quickly aboard a boat where an open flame wasn't practical.
Why it took this shape
Ehime sits between the Seto Inland Sea and the Bungo Channel, a stretch of water rich in fishing grounds, and sea bream is said to have long been treasured there as an auspicious fish. Nanyo's fishing grounds lie close to those off Kyushu, and its marinated style is said to have spread as something fishermen could prepare quickly at sea. In the Chuyo area around Matsuyama's Hojo district, the rice-cooked style is said to have remained the mainstay. Today the two styles mingle across the prefecture and the dish is often served on festive occasions.
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 Ehime
- Bote ChaRoasted tea is whisked to a froth with a salted bamboo whisk and poured over black-bean rice with toppings like bamboo shoot — a dish from Matsuyama. Said to have been devised by a domain lord's household during a period of enforced frugality, it's still served at a temple's springtime Buddha festival.
- EbitenSmall shrimp are ground shell and all, worked with white fish and tofu, and fried into a cake — a fish-paste product from eastern Ehime. The salt is kept light to let the tofu's sweetness and the shrimp's aroma come through, with the ground shell left in for a gritty bite.
- Igisu DofuIgisu seaweed and raw soybean flour are simmered into stock and chilled firm like agar, a dish from Imabari. Its cool texture is meant to coax back a summer appetite, and households differ over whether to fold in shrimp or leave it plain.
- SatsumaGrilled fish is flaked and worked into barley miso, thinned with a stock from its own bones, and ladled over hot barley rice — a dish of southern Ehime. Said to have started as a fisherman's trick for making dry barley rice easier to eat, with the fish varying by area and household.
- Ehime Tako MeshiOctopus from the Iyo Sea is cut into pieces and cooked into rice with kelp and root vegetables. It's said to have begun with fishermen simmering their catch right on board, and the finishing touch of mikan peel on top is distinctly Ehime.