Rice dishes
Kaki Meshi
Kaki meshi — rice cooked with Hiroshima Bay oysters and root vegetables
Oysters, seared briefly with sake, are cooked into rice together with carrot, burdock, and fried tofu in this dish from Etajima, an island known for oyster farming. The oysters are said to taste richest from December to February, when they store the most flavor-giving glycogen.
- Origin: Hiroshima Etajima
- About 680 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
A rice dish built around the flavor of oysters, grown up around Etajima's oyster farms. Oysters are said to be at their richest from December to February, when they've stored up the most glycogen. The broth-cooked rice carries a deep, briny oyster aroma through every bite.
How it's made
Washed oysters are cooked briefly in sake. Rice is cooked with shredded carrot, burdock, and fried tofu in broth, and the oysters are folded in once it's done. A simpler version cooks the oysters directly with the rice from the start.
Why it took this shape
Hiroshima Bay is said to have ideal oyster-growing conditions — steady currents, a diluted-salinity layer from river inflow, and nutrients washed down from the surrounding mountains — and oyster farming there has a long history. Turning the daily catch into a rice dish became a natural way to enjoy it at home, and the dish went on to become a favorite ekiben sold at train stations too.
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
- Uni MeshiRaw sea urchin is cooked directly into the rice for this dish from the Hagi coast. Urchin from the seaweed-rich waters off Hagi is prized for its sweetness and richness, but its price keeps it off everyday tables—traditionally it was served only to honored guests.
- 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.
Also from Hiroshima
- 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.