Rice dishes
Nara Chameshi
Nara chameshi — rice cooked with chestnuts and red beans in green tea
A Kawasaki City dish of rice cooked with chestnuts and red beans in green tea. Said to have been served at a teahouse along the Tokaido post town of Kawasaki-juku to great acclaim from travelers, it became nationally known after appearing in the comic novel Tokaidochu Hizakurige.
- Origin: Kanagawa Kawasaki
What it's made of
Rice is cooked with chestnuts, soybeans, red beans and millet in fragrant green tea instead of plain water. The faint aroma and slight astringency of the tea, absent from plain white rice, blend beautifully with the sweetness of the chestnuts and beans, producing a flavor that is simple yet has real depth. Originally a plain dish eaten by monks, it later became a light meal favored for serving travelers.
How it's made
Rice is combined with red beans, roasted chestnuts and similar ingredients and cooked slowly in fragrant green tea; that's the basic method. Modern versions are made as glutinous-rice okowa instead of plain cooked rice, sometimes using sweetened chestnuts in syrup rather than roasted ones. As in the past, it's often served alongside clam miso soup and pickles, a simple pairing still enjoyed today.
Why it took this shape
The dish is said to have originated with monks in Nara temples and traveled from there to a post town on the old highway. Served by a teahouse in this busy waypoint as a quick, tasty light meal, it built a strong reputation, drawing even lords of the realm to stop in. Its appearance in a popular travel story is said to be what carried its name across the whole country.
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 Kanagawa
- DoriaButter rice topped with shrimp in cream, covered in white sauce and cheese and baked. Said to have been improvised at a Yokohama hotel for a guest who wasn't feeling well.
- Ebi MayoBattered, fried shrimp are tossed in a sweet mayonnaise-based sauce — said to have begun when a Cantonese chef, unsatisfied with a mayonnaise-dressed shrimp dish he'd eaten in the United States, remade it his own way.
- Gyu NabeA Yokohama-born hot pot of beef, tofu and chrysanthemum greens simmered from the start in a soy or miso-based sauce. Born of the port city's encounter with Western meat-eating culture, it is said to trace to a tavern owner who opened one of the first beef-pot restaurants.
- Harihari-zukeDaikon cut thicker than ordinary kiriboshi strips, dried, then pickled in a soy-based sauce — a Miura Peninsula specialty. Its name is said to echo the crisp "hari-hari" bite, developed in Miura, a daikon-growing region since the Edo period.
- Herahera DangoA confection from Sajima in Yokosuka City, flattened dumplings of wheat or glutinous rice flour coated in sweet bean paste. Offered at the shrine during a summer boat festival to pray for a good catch and good health, it is still shared among family.
- Hiratsuka-kei TanmenA clear, salt-based broth carries a faint edge of acidity, topped with wakame seaweed and chopped onion — a thinner, less thickened bowl than the typical Kanagawa tanmen, said to have taken root among Chinese-style diners in Hiratsuka.