Rice dishes
Sanma Meshi
Sanma meshi — new-harvest rice cooked together with whole saury
Saury is cooked right in with the rice, then flaked and mixed back in with shredded ginger — an autumn dish from landlocked Yamanashi, where fresh saury is said to have reached market each fall and been made as a celebratory meal once the rice harvest was in.
- Origin: Yamanashi
- About 110 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Fillets of saury are cooked together with rice, then flaked and mixed back in with shredded ginger. As it cooks, the saury's oil and savor are said to seep slowly into the rice, while the ginger is said to sharpen the fish's characteristic oiliness. It's a dish said to have arisen simply because fresh saury reached even this landlocked region each autumn.
How it's made
Rice, washed and drained for about 30 minutes, goes into the pot with saury fillets, water, sake, and soy sauce to cook together. Once done, the fish is lifted out, flaked, and folded back into the rice along with julienned ginger, people say. Some recipes cook the saury raw, others grill it first, and shiso or yuzu is sometimes added too, it's said.
Why it took this shape
In autumn, once the rice harvest was in, this is said to have been made in home after home as a celebratory dish marking safe completion of the harvest. Around the time of the autumn festival, it's also said to trace back to saury bought from traders bringing salted fish from Niigata, cooked together with the new rice. The simple method of cooking fish and rice together in one pot seems to have taken hold as a way to put a festive meal on the table even during the busiest days of harvest.
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 Yamanashi
- Akebono Daizu no EdamameThe 'akebono' soybean, said to be 1.6 times the size of an ordinary bean, is picked young and salt-boiled — an edamame from the Akebono area of Minobu town. Grown since the Meiji era but resistant to mechanization, aging growers have made it scarce enough to be called a 'phantom bean'.
- Amanatto no OsekihanMade without azuki or cowpea beans, glutinous rice is dyed red with food coloring and mixed with candied sweet beans — a Yamanashi take on celebratory red rice, sweet-salty with a sprinkle of sesame salt. A similarly sweet red rice is said to exist far away in Hokkaido and parts of Tohoku.
- AnbinSweet potato and wheat flour are kneaded with hot water, wrapped around bean paste, slapped flat, and steamed — a sweet from the Kyonan region. Its name is said to come from the slapping motion, revived in Ichikawamisato town's Rokugo area after a local school's closure sparked a heritage-food effort.
- Awabi no NigaiAbalone from Suruga Bay was soy-sauce-marinated and hauled in barrels by horse, the jostling and body heat said to have worked the flavor deep in — a specialty from landlocked Kofu. Sliced thin and paired with its liver, shiso, and cucumber, it endures as a taste of the sea inland.
- Azuki HotoHoto noodles, cut thicker than usual, are simmered in sweet azuki bean soup in place of mochi — a festival food in Yamanashi. The summer festival at Miwa Shrine in Hokuto city's Wakamiko area is nicknamed the 'hoto festival', and azuki's red color is said to ward off misfortune.
- Hirauchi TanmenA salt-based tanmen from Kofu, Yamanashi, built on wide, flat noodles said to feel almost like fettuccine. Bean sprouts, pork, and napa cabbage pile on top for a vegetable-heavy bowl carried on today by several shops around the prefecture.