Rice dishes
Goma Gohan
Goma gohan — glutinous rice steamed with roasted black sesame
Roasted, ground black sesame is mixed into steamed glutinous rice — one of Tsugaru's "colored rice" dishes, its dark color offered at Buddhist rites, or sweetened with sugar for rice-planting and festival days.
- Origin: Aomori
- About 550 km north of Tokyo
What it's made of
A dish from the Tsugaru region's tradition of "colored rice," made by toasting and grinding black sesame and cooking it into glutinous rice. As the rice steams, a nutty sesame aroma rises with a subtle savoriness; despite its jet-black appearance, it has long been a favorite across generations, it is said. Some regions sweeten it and serve it in place of red bean rice for celebrations.
How it's made
Black sesame is toasted and ground in a mortar, then the mortar is rinsed with water so none of the sesame is wasted, and that water goes into the cooking liquid along with the glutinous rice. Some households use glutinous rice alone, others mix in non-glutinous rice, it is said. Seasoning shifts with the occasion: lightly sweetened for Buddhist observances, more generously sweetened for celebrations.
Why it took this shape
Large-scale new paddy development from the Edo period onward gave rise to a rich variety of rice dishes in Tsugaru, and colored rice, grains cooked with added ingredients for both flavor and hue, is said to have become a familiar category there. Its jet-black color made it fitting for Buddhist offerings and fasting days, while its energy also made it a valued meal for the busy, all-hands work of rice planting, it is thought.
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
Contrast
- GapparamochiLeftover rice or rice flour is sweetened with brown sugar and black sesame, poured into a pan and pan-fried on both sides — a Tsugaru snack said to have started as a way to use up the dregs from making rice-starch glue.
- Goma ToufuRaw sesame is skinned, ground, and worked with mountain water and Yoshino arrowroot into a simmered block of shojin cuisine. Said to have supplied protein for monks who abstained from meat and fish, it's now a familiar Koyasan souvenir and a fixture on Japanese menus.
Also from Aomori
- BekomochiColored strips of glutinous and non-glutinous rice-flour dough are bundled and steamed so each slice reveals a pattern — a Boys' Day treat from rice-poor Shimokita, its designs elaborated around Oma town.
- HittsumiHand-torn pieces of kneaded wheat dough are simmered in a chicken-and-soy broth with carrot and burdock — a dish from the old Nanbu domain spanning southeastern Aomori and northern Iwate, once a rice substitute in lean years.
- KakkeThin buckwheat dough is cut into triangles, simmered with daikon and tofu, and dipped in garlic miso — said to have begun when the Nanbu domain banned fine-cut soba, leaving people to eat the offcuts instead.
- Kujira JiruSalted whale blubber is parboiled to render off excess fat, then simmered in a big pot with daikon, carrot and potato — a New Year dish from around Hachinohe's old whaling grounds, said to deepen in flavor over several days.
- Mame ShitogiMashed boiled green soybeans are kneaded with rice flour and sugar into a log and sliced — a Nanbu-region sweet that stretched scarce rice with beans, once offered to the mountain and harvest gods.
- Aomori ShamorockSaid to be developed by Aomori's livestock experiment station over roughly two decades of research from a shamo and Barred Plymouth Rock cross; reportedly reared about 100 days for cockerels and 120 for hens, 50–60 days longer than a standard broiler.