Rice dishes ── Sushi
Myoga Zushi
Myoga zushi — chirashi sushi with pink ginger flower buds
Kosanami myoga — a local pink ginger flower bud — and flaked trout are mixed into sushi rice, a festival treat said to have been served at houonko and other celebrations; a later bamboo-wrapped pressed version made it easier to carry and share.
- Origin: Toyama City, Toyama
- About 260 km northwest of Tokyo
What it's made of
A sushi of pink myoga ginger buds and flaked trout folded through vinegared rice. The myoga's crisp snap and bright fragrance lift the rice's tang and the trout's faint richness. Some versions are simply mixed and eaten fresh, while others are wrapped in bamboo leaf and pressed — the latter said to keep its moist texture even after time has passed.
How it's made
The myoga is cut into thin strips, salted, and steeped in vinegar. The trout is marinated in a vinegared liquid and flaked apart. Rice is cooked slightly firm with dashi added, then mixed with sweetened vinegar while still hot before the trout, myoga, and shiso are folded in. Freshly made, the myoga's fragrance stands out most; leftovers are said to keep better pressed into shape and wrapped in bamboo leaf.
Why it took this shape
The fragrant myoga grown in one district is said to have once been raised in home gardens and treated as a feast reserved for festivals, always worked into this sushi. Production thinned for a time as the area's population declined, but devising a bamboo-leaf-wrapped, portable form is said to have brought the dish back to tables beyond just special occasions.
Before you go
- How to read a vertical menuIn shops with strips of handwritten menu items on the wall, the top-right spot is often used for recommendations.
- 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.
- How to shop at a supermarketHow to choose prepared foods, sashimi, and packaged sushi, when discount stickers tend to appear, region-only specialties, buying by weight, the checkout and bagging flow, and sampling etiquette at a local supermarket.
Dishes in the same style
- 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.
- Aichi HakozushiVinegared rice is packed into a wooden frame, topped with shrimp, eel, shiitake, and egg arranged diagonally, and pressed. Placing toppings on the diagonal so everyone gets a fair share of each is said to be a feature of the Owari and western Mikawa style, made for celebrations.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Toyama
- Bai no NimonoWhelks from the deep waters of Toyama Bay are simmered whole in their shells — said to appear at celebrations thanks to a play on words suggesting doubled good fortune, with smaller whelks simmered and larger ones eaten raw.
- BekkoMelted agar is seasoned with soy sauce and mirin, then set with egg trailed in like threads — its amber color flecked with egg said to resemble a tortoiseshell hair ornament, giving the dish its name; in the west of the prefecture it goes by "yubeshi" instead.
- BurishabuThin slices of yellowtail are swished briefly through kelp broth, said to cook only the surface while leaving the center rare — versions using Himi's branded winter yellowtail are considered a particularly luxurious cold-weather treat.
- Genge no MisoshiruEelpout, a deep-sea fish covered in a gelatinous layer, is cut into chunks and simmered into a miso soup — long treated as an unwanted bycatch of sweet shrimp fishing, its flavor has since been reappraised and spread beyond the fishing villages that first ate it.
- Himi UdonA hand-stretched udon developed in Himi, Toyama, in the mid-Edo period by adapting somen-making techniques from Wajima. It was once presented to the Kaga domain as tribute.
- Hoonko RyoriA catch-all term for the dishes served at houonko, the memorial gathering held on the death anniversary of Jodo Shinshu's founder — the season's better vegetables and wild greens are said to be set aside for it apart from everyday use, with the devout Gokayama area of Nanto known for hearty stews of dried greens and local tofu.