Rice dishes
Takomeshi
Takomeshi — rice cooked with chunks of Kurashiki octopus
Octopus caught in the fast currents off Kurashiki's Shimotsui, prized for its firm bite, is cut into chunks and cooked into rice — said to have started as something fishermen ate aboard their boats, with each shop now shaping it its own way.
- Origin: Okayama Kurashiki
- About 560 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Chopped octopus is cooked into rice, filling the dish with a briny, oceanic aroma. Octopus raised in the fast currents off Shimotsui grows notably firm, giving each bite a springy chewiness set against the broth-sweetened rice. A scattering of scallion on top sharpens the whole dish and lets the quality of the octopus shine through.
How it's made
The octopus is rubbed with salt to remove its slime, lightly pounded with the back of a knife, and cut small. Rice, octopus, minced ginger, and seasoning go into a rice cooker together; once done, chopped scallion is folded in.
Why it took this shape
The waters off Shimotsui, where currents run especially fast even for the Seto Inland Sea, are said to grow unusually firm-bodied octopus. Fishermen are said to have first cooked their catch, chopped straight up, into rice aboard their boats, and the dish is said to have spread across Kurashiki from there, with each restaurant today putting its own spin on the ingredients, seasoning, and toppings.
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
- FunameshiCrucian carp caught in the waterways of the reclaimed Kojima Bay farmland, at their least fishy in the cold season, are minced by hand and simmered with root vegetables, the rich broth then ladled over hot rice — also known as tonto-ko-jiru for the sound of the knife against the board.
- Iidako no NitsukeSmall octopus caught off Kurashiki's Shimotsui, their bodies packed with rice-grain-sized eggs, are simmered in a soy broth through winter — locals say the ink, too, holds the flavor, though many still remove the ink sac before cooking.
- TakomeshiFishermen once chopped up freshly caught octopus and cooked it right into their rice on board—the origin, it is said, of this Mihara dish. Fast currents off Mihara give the octopus thick, taut legs, and the meat is simmered into rice with burdock and carrot in a soy-seasoned broth.
Also from Okayama
- Ami to Daikon no NitsukeTiny Setouchi shrimp called ami, richest in early autumn, are simmered with daikon in soy sauce and sugar — a pairing said to have grown from the two coming into season together, with a salted version kept for winter when rough seas kept boats ashore.
- Bachi JiruThe offcut ends of hand-stretched somen, called bachi for their resemblance to a shamisen pick, are simmered with daikon, carrot, and fried tofu in Asakuchi's Kamogata — said to hold a firmer bite than the somen strands themselves.
- Buri ZoniIn southern Okayama, New Year's zoni is built around yellowtail, a fish that changes name as it grows and so is read as auspicious, simmered with spinach, daikon, and other root vegetables — a dish passed down through the generations for the New Year's table.
- Chiya GyuJapanese Black raised in Niimi, Okayama, tracing to one of the oldest documented "tsuru-ushi" pedigree lines from the Edo period — said to benefit from the clear Takahashi river and fertile soil.
- Demi KatsudonA freshly fried pork cutlet is doused in hot demi-glace sauce over rice, a bowl said to have been devised by the founder of an old Okayama City restaurant after being won over by Western-style cooking at a Tokyo hotel — toppings vary shop to shop.