Rice dishes
Hebo Meshi
Hebo meshi — rice mixed with sweet-simmered wasp larvae
The larvae of a ground-nesting wasp, called hebo, are simmered sweet in soy sauce and sugar, then folded through cooked rice — a dish of the Ena area with a record reaching back to Edo-period texts, long valued as a source of animal protein.
- Origin: Gifu
- About 210 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
A dish of rice mixed through with sweet-simmered larvae of the ground-nesting wasp called hebo, so a toasty, chewy bite of larvae meets a rich, sweet-savory depth of soy sauce and sugar. High in protein and considered deeply nourishing, it's said to have been treated as a special dish reserved for honored guests.
How it's made
Larvae taken from the nest are simmered sweet and savory in sugar, soy sauce, and sake to make a glaze, which is then cooked together with rice and soy sauce into hebo rice. Eating the glazed larvae on their own, or working them into the sauce for grilled rice skewers, are both said to be classic ways to eat them. In some districts the adult wasps are said to be dry-roasted and eaten too.
Why it took this shape
In the Tono region, far from the sea, hebo is said to have supported residents' health as a valued source of protein, and a text from the Edo period already records the custom of eating it. It's said to be a food culture shared across the mountainous stretch from Shinshu to Oku-Mikawa, handed down as a treasured, almost secretive dish through generations.
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 Gifu
- Akadatsu no SubuteThe red-purple leaf stalk of taro, called akadatsu, has its fibers removed and is salt-rubbed before being dressed in a sweetened vinegar — a dish of Yamagata City on land whose lime-poor, thin soil suited taro cultivation, once said to be fed to new mothers to aid recovery.
- Ayu NarezushiAyu heading downriver to spawn in autumn, often carrying roe, are salted and stuffed with freshly cooked rice, then packed in a barrel to ferment for about two months — a narezushi of Gifu City said to have been made from fish caught at the Nagara River's cormorant fishery and once presented to the shogunate.
- Ayu ZosuiAyu, grilled plain until fragrant, is flaked and briefly simmered with dashi and rice into a light porridge — a Gifu river-fish dish said to have begun as a way to use ayu too damaged from fishing to sell whole, often served as the closing course at restaurants specializing in ayu.
- FunamisoCrucian carp, first grilled plain, simmers for hours with rehydrated soybeans, then finishes in soybean miso and coarse sugar — a river-fish dish of the Seino region, where the miso's strong umami is said to soften the fish's characteristic edge, simmered until the flesh falls apart as a winter keeping food.
- Ayu no ShioyakiAyu are salted all over, given a decorative touch of salt on fin and tail, then grilled over charcoal on both sides — a river-fish dish of Gifu, said to draw on fish caught fresh at the 1,300-year-old Nagara River cormorant fishery or at the traditional yana weirs that channel fish into a catch.