Rice dishes
Seigaku Mochi
Seigaku Mochi — pounded rice cake made without mochi rice
Ordinary non-glutinous rice, steamed twice without grinding and pounded like mochi, makes a rice cake with little of the stickiness of the real thing — said to have been devised by the late-Edo farmer-educator Ohara Yugaku for households that couldn't afford true mochi rice.
- Origin: Chiba Asahi
- About 80 km east of Tokyo
What it's made of
Non-glutinous rice is steamed twice without being ground into flour, then pounded with a mortar and pestle into a rice cake. Without glutinous rice, it turns out less sticky and smoother in texture. It is prized for not catching in the throat and for holding its shape in soup, and it became a favorite in rice-growing households, also known by the name "tsukinuki mochi," said to be named after a school of thought teaching balance between morality and livelihood.
How it's made
Non-glutinous rice is washed, steamed twice, and pounded while still hot with a mortar and pestle. It is pounded the same way as glutinous rice cake, but because it is non-glutinous it stretches less and stays soft rather than hardening over time. This ease of handling is also said to come from how well it works in soups, hotpots, stir-fries, or even a dumpling-style dessert, and it is often made with a rice-cake machine, letting households prepare it fairly easily.
Why it took this shape
In the late Edo period, a farming instructor is said to have devised a way to pound rice cake from non-glutinous rice so that farmers who could not afford the costly glutinous rice could still enjoy something like it. Because it hardens less than glutinous rice cake, it also suits preservation, and it is said to have been passed down for generations mainly among farming families in a rice-growing area, still made by hand by local women and served at the table today.
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 Chiba
- Arirang RamenA soy ramen said to have started at a single restaurant on a mountain pass in Chiba's Nagara. Named, it's said, for the legendary Arirang Pass of Korean folklore, its soy broth carries the sweetness of onion and pork, layered with house-made chili oil and grated garlic for depth and heat.
- Barappa ManjuFreshly milled wheat dough is wrapped around red bean paste and steamed on a leaf of catbrier, called barappa locally — a bun said to be made in Chiba's Hokuso area when people gathered for summer festivals or Obon, each bringing ingredients to share.
- Iwashi no Unohana-zukeSalt-and-vinegar-cured sardines are packed into sweet-vinegared tofu lees with carrot and ginger — the pale lees are likened to unohana blossoms in the name, and are also said to keep the fish from breaking apart or oxidizing; eaten at New Year's and as an everyday pantry food.
- Rakkasei MisoPeanuts too small or misshapen to sell are stirred into miso and sugar and toasted into a pantry relish — said to have started as a way for farm households to use up peanuts the market wouldn't take, in leaner years.
- SumitsukareDaikon and carrot, coarsely grated with a rough-toothed oni-oroshi grater, are simmered with leftover setsubun soybeans and sake lees — said to have traveled from Tochigi into Chiba's Higashikatsushika area, offered to the local inari shrine on the year's first Day of the Horse before being eaten. Ibaraki and Saitama carry dishes of the same name.
- Yude RakkaseiFreshly dug peanuts, still in their shells, are boiled whole in salted water — a taste unique to the growing region, since raw peanuts start hardening the moment they're pulled from the ground and need to be boiled almost immediately.