Rice dishes
Uzumi
Uzumi — vegetables and seafood hidden beneath rice, ladled with broth
Simmered taro, shrimp, and sea bream sit in a bowl hidden under a mound of rice in this Fukuyama dish. It is said to date to the Edo period, when diners tucked good ingredients beneath plain rice to appear modest, and it later became a way to mark the autumn harvest.
- Origin: Hiroshima Fukuyama
- About 600 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Shrimp and sea bream simmered in broth with vegetables like taro are piled into a bowl, doused in the broth, and topped with a mound of rice — the good stuff hidden underneath. The broth itself varies: coastal areas in the south are said to use dried sardines, while the mountainous north uses dried shiitake instead.
How it's made
Burdock, taro, carrot, daikon, shiitake, matsutake, tofu, small shrimp, chicken, and sea bream are each cut to bite size and pre-cooked. They're arranged in a bowl, a separately drawn broth is poured over, and rice is mounded on top to finish.
Why it took this shape
It's said to have started in the Edo period as a way of burying the good ingredients under plain-looking rice, making a lavish meal appear modest. Several other "buried rice" dishes are said to exist across the Chugoku region, including Shimane's uzume-meshi and Okayama's Bizen bara-zushi. It was reportedly a harvest-celebration dish through the 1960s, then fell out of everyday use before restaurants and school meals brought it back into circulation.
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
- UzumiRice is buried beneath a clear broth of shiitake and kelp, floated with tofu and mushrooms, and finished with citrus zest and ginger. Passed down only in the Hirai hamlet deep in the Kozagawa valley for the eve of a memorial service, one account traces it back to Kyoto kaiseki cuisine.
- GyohanFlaked grilled white fish, egg crepe, and shrimp are arranged over rice, then doused in a broth made from the fish's own bones—a dish from Takehara, a town once wealthy on salt production. Nearly lost, it was reconstructed decades later from an old newspaper clipping after salt farming ended.
- MobiriNamed for the Hiroshima dialect word "moburu" (to mix), this rice is tossed with simmered burdock, shiitake, and black beans. In Otake and nearby towns it was formerly rolled into large rice balls and handed out at farm breaks and celebrations such as house-raisings.
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.