Rice dishes
Yakome
Yakome — steamed sticky rice with roasted soybeans and sesame, offered to the fields
Glutinous and non-glutinous rice are steamed together with roasted soybeans and sesame — a ritual food said to originate as an offering laid at the inlet of a rice paddy during the 'mizuguchi' spring planting rite, its name traced to roasted unhulled rice, 'yakigome'.
- Origin: Yamanashi
- About 110 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Mochi rice and regular rice are steamed together with roasted soybeans and salt, finished with roasted sesame mixed through. The fluffy steamed rice against the toasty soybeans and fragrant sesame is said to be the appeal. It's said to trace back to an offering of hulled, roasted rice grains, giving this plainly salted dish a meaning tied to a Shinto rite.
How it's made
Mochi rice and regular rice are washed together and soaked for several hours before steaming. Once steam rises, roasted, softened soybeans are laid on top, and salted water is sprinkled in as it steams further, people say. Roasted sesame is folded in once it's done, and some households are said to take care to leave the beans a little firm.
Why it took this shape
Around the start of spring, an offering of hulled and roasted rice grains is said to have been made at the water inlet of the paddy to welcome the harvest deity and pray for abundance in a rite called Minakuchi Matsuri. The name 'yakome' is said to derive from that roasted rice. Soybeans were believed to house a grain spirit and are said to rank just after rice in Shinto ritual use, which seems to be why rice and soybeans came to be steamed together as this ritual dish.
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
- MimiSquares of wheat dough are pinched at two corners into a triangle and simmered in miso with vegetables — a dish from the Totani area of Fujikawa town. Its shape, likened to a winnowing basket, is said to symbolize scooping up good fortune, and it is offered to the New Year's deity.
- Sanma MeshiSaury 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.
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.