Rice dishes
Mobiri
Mobiri — rice mixed with simmered root vegetables and black beans
Named 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.
- Origin: Hiroshima
- About 710 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Cooked rice mixed with dried shiitake, burdock, carrot, lotus root, black soybeans, and green beans. The name is said to come from the local dialect word mobiru, meaning "to mix in." Ingredients vary by region and season, sometimes including shrimp, fish, or shellfish.
How it's made
Rehydrated dried shiitake is shredded, lotus root is diced and parboiled, and burdock is shaved thin, then all are simmered together in broth. Shredded carrot and fried tofu are added and seasoned with sugar and soy sauce until tender. The liquid is drained off, the mixture cooled, and folded into cooked rice with black soybeans and a scattering of green beans for color.
Why it took this shape
It's said to have served as a quick, nutritious meal eaten during breaks from farm work, doubling as a modest treat for celebrations and memorial gatherings. In Otake, it's said to have been eaten at a memorial meal for the founding monk Kobo Daishi and at equinox gatherings, and formed into large round rice balls to hand out to neighbors when a new house was raised.
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
- UzumiSimmered 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.
- Kinako MusubiRice balls stuffed with pickled plum or salted kelp are dusted thickly in toasted soybean flour, eaten during breaks from rice planting. Still served at the Mibu no Hanataue festival, a UNESCO-listed rice-planting rite, the round shape is said to carry a wish for a bountiful autumn.
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.