Rice dishes ── Sushi
Todomese
Todomese — vinegar-seasoned rice from a Muromachi-era port town
A rice pilaf finished with vinegar, from the old port town of Setouchi — said to have begun when sour, spoiled doburoku was stirred into a boatman's rice, and the name itself is a slurring of doburoku-meshi.
- Origin: Okayama Setouchi
- About 530 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Seasoned rice cooked with dried shiitake, carrot, burdock, taro, and other ingredients is mixed with vinegar, a dish said to be an ancestor of Okayama's scattered sushi. It's topped with glazed conger eel, green beans, and shredded egg for a festive finish, the clean tang of the vinegar cutting through the rich, broth-soaked rice.
How it's made
The ingredients are sautéed in oil, then briefly simmered in water and seasoning. Rice, kelp, sake, and the ingredients are cooked together in a rice cooker; once done, the kelp is removed and vinegar and seasoning are folded in before the rice rests. It's served topped with glazed conger eel, green beans, and shredded egg.
Why it took this shape
The dish is said to trace back to the medieval river port of Bizen-Fukuoka, where boatmen were reportedly served seasoned rice, and a samurai once mixed in doburoku that had turned sour — making it taste better by accident. The name todomese is said to be a contraction of doburoku-meshi, and as an ancestor of Okayama's scattered sushi, it stayed tied to festivals and gatherings where crowds turned out.
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 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.
- 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.