Rice dishes
Takomeshi
Takomeshi — rice cooked with octopus, a fisherman's meal from Mihara
Fishermen once chopped up freshly caught octopus and cooked it right into their rice on board—the origin, it is said, of this Mihara dish. Fast currents off Mihara give the octopus thick, taut legs, and the meat is simmered into rice with burdock and carrot in a soy-seasoned broth.
- Origin: Hiroshima Mihara
- About 630 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Chopped octopus cooked into rice with carrot, burdock, and fried tofu, said to have started as a fisherman's meal. Octopus from the fast currents off Mihara grows short, thick legs with a notably springy bite, and the rice carries a deep, oceanic aroma from the broth.
How it's made
Raw octopus is rubbed with salt to remove its slime, rinsed, and chopped. It's cooked into rice with carrot, burdock, ginger, broth, soy sauce, and sake. Some cooks use rice bran instead of salt to remove the slime, or use dried octopus for extra depth.
Why it took this shape
The waters off Mihara are said to offer good water quality, stable temperatures, and octopus-friendly rocky seabeds, and octopus fishing there is said to date to the Edo period. It's said to have started as a fisherman's meal, chopped and cooked into rice straight aboard the boat, and in some areas was eaten at rice-planting festivals with a wish that the rice take root as firmly as an octopus grips a rock.
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
- TakomeshiOctopus caught in the fast currents off Kurashiki's Shimotsui, prized for its firm bite, is cut into chunks and cooked into rice — said to have started as something fishermen ate aboard their boats, with each shop now shaping it its own way.
- TaimeshiA whole sea bream, scaled and gutted, is set into the pot and cooked together with the rice—a fisherman's dish from the Seto Inland Sea. The area's rocky seabed and currents suit bream spawning, and the dish is tied to the roughly 380-year-old tai-shibari net fishery of Tomonoura.
Also from Hiroshima
- Anago MeshiConger eel, grilled kabayaki-style, is sliced and layered over rice cooked in dashi—a dish from Miyajima. It uses "Seto anago," prized for the fat that fast currents help build into the fish, and is said to have begun in 1901 as a bento sold at Miyajimaguchi station.
- AzumaSardine-like mamakari, cured in vinegar, is pressed onto seasoned okara instead of vinegared rice in this coastal sushi. It is said to have begun as a way to stretch scarce rice by substituting the cheap, plentiful soy pulp, and was served at festivals and New Year's gatherings.
- Bishu NabeChicken, gizzard, and pork are simmered with nothing more than salt, pepper, and sake in this hot pot from Saijo, one of Japan's noted brewing towns. It is said to have begun as a simple meal cooked by sake brewers between batches, seasoned lightly so as not to dull their palate for tasting.
- EbamakiRice is tossed with Hiroshima-na pickle, bonito flakes, and sesame, then rolled in toasted nori—a roll from Hiroshima's Eba district, long known for seaweed cultivation. The ends are sometimes tucked shut so it can be eaten one-handed while rowing, a food born for nori fishermen working on the water.
- Fuchu-yakiA Fuchu, Hiroshima take on okonomiyaki that swaps sliced pork belly for ground beef or pork worked right into the batter, so the meat's flavor is said to come through evenly in every bite.
- GansuFish paste coated in panko and fried, a Kure, Hiroshima specialty. Said to have been devised in the postwar 1940s as a way to use leftover fish paste from kamaboko production, an unusual pairing of fried fish cake and cutlet-style crumb.