Iriko Meshi

Iriko-meshi is a rice dish from western Kagawa cooked with both the dashi and the meat of iriko, dried young sardines. Carrot, daikon, taro, and konjac are cooked into the rice along with it, and the deep flavor of the iriko spreads through every grain. The Seto Inland Sea supports a strong anchovy fishery, and because the catch is processed quickly after landing, the region is known for producing particularly flavorful iriko. The meat itself has a crumbly texture and is said to be eaten as is even after the dashi has been drawn from it.

The iriko are headed and split open, and the heads are soaked in water to make dashi. Rice, chopped vegetables, the iriko meat, the iriko dashi, and seasoning all go into the pot together to cook. Mushrooms or burdock are often added too, and the mix of vegetables varies with the season and the household's taste. Drawing a full-flavored dashi from the iriko is said to be the key to bringing out the dish's flavor.

Anchovies raised in the calm waters of the Seto Inland Sea are said to yield a rich, deeply flavorful dashi once processed into iriko, and that dashi has become essential to home cooking across the prefecture, from Sanuki udon on down. Cooking the iriko meat directly into the rice as well, rather than discarding it after making dashi, looks like a way of making full use of a high-quality ingredient that was close at hand.