Rice dishes
Shoyu Meshi
Shoyu Meshi — a soy-simmered mixed rice that became Matsuyama's train-station bento
Burdock, carrot, and other seasonal vegetables are cooked into rice with soy sauce — a celebratory rice dish from the Matsuyama area, said to trace back to Muromachi-era hospitality cooking. A Showa-era bento version, sold at the train station, remains a Matsuyama favorite today.
- Origin: Ehime
- About 670 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
The toasty fragrance of soy sauce rises gently, and a rich, sweet-savory depth builds with every bite of this rice cooked with seasonings. Long passed down in the Matsuyama area, the traditional version is said to pair burdock and carrot, whatever vegetables were on hand, with dried fried tofu. Because it added plant protein and deepened the flavor, it is said to have been favored by ordinary households as a way to entertain guests. Butterbur and bamboo shoot in spring, taro and chestnut in autumn — the seasonal ingredients are said to change so the dish can be enjoyed year-round.
How it's made
Carrot, burdock, and other vegetables are prepared, and the rice is cooked together with seasoning built around soy sauce. It is served topped with shredded egg crepe and nori. The finished rice is said to carry a rich depth of flavor and to stay pleasantly soft even after it cools. Wild greens in spring, taro or daikon in winter — swapping the ingredients by season is said to allow endless variation throughout the year.
Why it took this shape
This rice dish is said to have been called shoyu-meshi as far back as the Muromachi period, favored as something served on festive occasions. The ease of putting it together from whatever vegetables were at hand, to welcome a guest, is said to be why it has been carried on so long in the Matsuyama area. In the 1950s, a boxed-lunch shop in Masaki is said to have adapted it and sold it as a train-station bento, which is said to have brought it wider recognition, and another shop is said to carry on that recipe and sell it 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 Ehime
- EbitenSmall shrimp are ground shell and all, worked with white fish and tofu, and fried into a cake — a fish-paste product from eastern Ehime. The salt is kept light to let the tofu's sweetness and the shrimp's aroma come through, with the ground shell left in for a gritty bite.
- Igisu DofuIgisu seaweed and raw soybean flour are simmered into stock and chilled firm like agar, a dish from Imabari. Its cool texture is meant to coax back a summer appetite, and households differ over whether to fold in shrimp or leave it plain.
- SatsumaGrilled fish is flaked and worked into barley miso, thinned with a stock from its own bones, and ladled over hot barley rice — a dish of southern Ehime. Said to have started as a fisherman's trick for making dry barley rice easier to eat, with the fish varying by area and household.
- Tai SomenA whole sea bream is simmered and set on a large platter of boiled somen noodles, the cooking broth doubling as a dipping sauce. The noodles are linked to the Tanabata weaver-star legend and the fish to good fortune, and the dish has long been served to family at weddings and milestone birthdays.
- TaimeshiEastern Ehime cooks a whole sea bream into the rice pot; the south instead lays raw fillets marinated in egg and soy over hot rice. Considered an auspicious fish, it appears at celebrations too, and which style a household follows tends to run by region.