Rice dishes
Tsutsumi Meshi
Tsutsumi meshi — buckwheat porridge ladled over a bed of rice
Sobagome zosui and plain rice are cooked separately, then the porridge is ladled over the rice and mixed together before eating. Said to take its name from the rice being wrapped in buckwheat, thought to have evolved as the Iya valley's sobagome zosui spread down to the lowlands.
- Origin: Tokushima
- About 550 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Tsutsumi-meshi is a western Tokushima dish in which sobagome zōsui (buckwheat groat porridge) and plain rice are cooked separately, then layered and mixed together. The name is said to come from the idea of "wrapping" the rice in the buckwheat groats. The starchy warmth and dashi-rich flavor of the zōsui — simmered with chicken, fried tofu, carrot, daikon, and fish cake — soaks gradually into the freshly cooked rice, so a single bowl carries both the light snap of the groats and the softness of the rice.
How it's made
The sobagome zōsui and the plain rice are each cooked on their own, then the rice is plated and the zōsui is ladled over it and mixed together before eating. The ingredients and method are said to be much the same from one household to the next, with little variation. Cooking the same ingredients together with the rice from the start isn't called tsutsumi-meshi; keeping the porridge and the rice separate until they are combined at the table is what defines the dish.
Why it took this shape
In the farming communities of rural Tokushima, where rice was once scarce, stretching it with buckwheat groats or whole buckwheat was reportedly a common workaround. Tsutsumi-meshi appears to have grown out of that same tradition, evolving as sobagome zōsui from the Iya mountains spread down to the lowland villages and was paired with rice. Sobagome zōsui itself is still commonly made at home today, but tsutsumi-meshi has not caught on with younger generations, and fewer households are said to make it now.
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 Tokushima
- Amego no HirarayakiA flat stone is heated over a hearth for hours, then a border of miso is built on it to grill amego trout, stone tofu, and konjac — an outdoor dish from the Iya valley. Its name comes from hirara, a local word for a flat stone, and it is said to have long served as a dish for entertaining guests.
- Awa BanchaA post-fermented tea from Naka and Kamikatsu towns in Tokushima, fermented by lactic acid bacteria. Coarser leaves picked from midsummer on are boiled, packed into wooden barrels, fermented for roughly 10 days to two weeks, then sun-dried — said to give a refreshing sourness.
- Awa BitonRaised in the mountains of Awa City, Tokushima, at about 400 meters, on a feed centered on rice. Handlers are said to adjust the feed mix daily and avoid genetically modified crops where possible.
- Awa GyuPedigreed Japanese Black fattened in Tokushima, which gained recognition after being shown at a Tokyo meat market competition in 1962 — said to have a moist, fine-grained texture and modest fat.
- Awa no ItokoniSweet potato that has been boiled then dried — yude-boshi style — is rehydrated and simmered slowly with red beans for about two hours over low heat. Fitting for a region where drying vegetables is common in winter, it is said to be a warming side dish built on the concentrated flavor of dried sweet potato.
- Awa UiroRed bean paste mixed with rice flour and Awa wasanbon sugar is poured into a mold and steamed into a chewy cake. Said to have first been made to celebrate the completion of Awa wasanbon sugar in the Edo period, with related uiro cakes also found in Nagoya and Yamaguchi.