Rice dishes
Kusagina Kakemeshi
Kusagina kakemeshi — dried clerodendrum greens over broth-doused rice
Dried, strong-smelling clerodendrum leaves are rehydrated, stir-fried with chicken, and piled over rice, then doused with a clear chicken broth in Kibichuo — the leaves are picked young and carefully leached of bitterness before drying.
- Origin: Okayama Kibichuo
- About 560 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Dried young leaves of the wild shrub kusagi are rehydrated, stir-fried with chicken, burdock, carrot, and shiitake, and piled onto rice, then topped with a clear chicken broth. Rehydrating tames the leaf's famously strong smell, leaving a mellow, earthy flavor that mingles with the broth's clean savoriness — a hearty, mountain-village dish.
How it's made
The young kusagi leaves are picked around late May, boiled briefly, soaked to leach out bitterness, wrung out, and sun-dried on a straw mat for storage. To serve, they're slowly rehydrated in water, chopped small, and stir-fried with chicken, burdock, carrot, and shiitake before being seasoned and piled on rice, topped with clear chicken broth and scallion.
Why it took this shape
Kusagi leaves are said to demand careful timing — picked at just the right stage, about egg-sized, then carefully leached of bitterness before drying, a labor-intensive process built for long storage. That shelf life is thought to have suited mountain life well, letting the dish be rehydrated and served at seasonal events throughout the year.
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 Okayama
- Ami to Daikon no NitsukeTiny Setouchi shrimp called ami, richest in early autumn, are simmered with daikon in soy sauce and sugar — a pairing said to have grown from the two coming into season together, with a salted version kept for winter when rough seas kept boats ashore.
- Bachi JiruThe offcut ends of hand-stretched somen, called bachi for their resemblance to a shamisen pick, are simmered with daikon, carrot, and fried tofu in Asakuchi's Kamogata — said to hold a firmer bite than the somen strands themselves.
- Buri ZoniIn southern Okayama, New Year's zoni is built around yellowtail, a fish that changes name as it grows and so is read as auspicious, simmered with spinach, daikon, and other root vegetables — a dish passed down through the generations for the New Year's table.
- Chiya GyuJapanese Black raised in Niimi, Okayama, tracing to one of the oldest documented "tsuru-ushi" pedigree lines from the Edo period — said to benefit from the clear Takahashi river and fertile soil.
- Demi KatsudonA freshly fried pork cutlet is doused in hot demi-glace sauce over rice, a bowl said to have been devised by the founder of an old Okayama City restaurant after being won over by Western-style cooking at a Tokyo hotel — toppings vary shop to shop.
- FunameshiCrucian carp caught in the waterways of the reclaimed Kojima Bay farmland, at their least fishy in the cold season, are minced by hand and simmered with root vegetables, the rich broth then ladled over hot rice — also known as tonto-ko-jiru for the sound of the knife against the board.