Sweets
Oiri
Oiri — leftover rice dried, toasted, and bound with sweet syrup
Leftover rice is rinsed, sun-dried, then toasted and bound with sweet syrup into small balls, a treat from the old Inaba region. Said to have grown from a habit of not wasting food, it's offered alongside the doll-floating ritual still kept in Tottori City's Mochigase area for the Doll Festival.
- Origin: Tottori City, Tottori
- About 500 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Oiri is a dried rice confection born from a wish not to waste leftover rice, a simple sweet handed down in the Inaba region. Sun-dried cooked rice is toasted and coated in a hot malt syrup, then shaped into rounds while still warm. Ingredients vary from maker to maker — brown rice, white rice, wheat flour, rice flour, or puffed rice cereal — and some households add ginger juice for extra fragrance.
How it's made
Leftover rice is rinsed and sun-dried into dried cooked rice, then toasted. The toasted rice is coated in hot malt syrup and formed into rounds while still warm. Adding ginger juice while cooking the syrup is said to deepen the flavor. Households have long created their own versions to match whatever ingredients were on hand or family taste, and while the traditional recipe leaves the rice uncolored, some makers mix in mochi tinted a soft pink or green.
Why it took this shape
Households in the Inaba region are said to have created oiri out of a wish not to waste leftover rice, and the cooking method of toasting, "iru" in Japanese, is thought to be the direct source of the name. It became a fixture of the Girls' Festival, served alongside diamond-shaped mochi and peach blossoms as part of a custom of setting paper dolls afloat to carry away impurities. Because Tottori often marks the Girls' Festival by the old lunar calendar, oiri is said to remain popular from around January or February through as late as April.
Before you go
- How to shop in a depachika (department store food hall)A guide to browsing prepared foods and bento, choosing wagashi as a gift with a good shelf life, sampling etiquette, end-of-day discounts, asking for cold packs and wrapping, and finding your way around a depachika floor.
- Osechi and zoni for the New YearA guide to the meaning behind osechi's tiered boxes, the regional differences in zoni (square vs. round mochi, clear vs. miso broth), and the nanakusa-gayu custom.
- Setsubun: ehomaki and lucky beansA guide to ehomaki, the uncut sushi roll said to be eaten facing a lucky direction on Setsubun, and to mamemaki, the bean-throwing custom with roasted lucky beans.
Dishes in the same style
- Abekawa MochiFresh-pounded rice cake is dusted in soybean flour mixed with sugar. Named for the Abe River, it's said to have been famous among Tokaido travelers as a teahouse specialty and to appear in the travel novel Tokaidochu Hizakurige.
- Iga ManjuSweet bean paste is wrapped in rice flour dough, then coated with dyed sticky rice grains. One account ties the name to the grains' resemblance to a chestnut's spiny husk, and in the western Mikawa region it's said to be offered to Hina dolls at the Doll Festival.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Tottori
- Ago ChikuwaChikuwa made from the surimi of flying fish, called "ago" in Tottori. A knife through the firm grilled skin sends up a fragrant crackle, and it turns out darker than ordinary chikuwa. It's a taste of early summer, in season through the fish's spawning run from spring into summer.
- Akagarei no KomaburiRoe-bearing red flounder is sliced into sashimi and tossed with its own boiled, crumbled eggs, a dish from around the Amijiro area of Iwami Town. Said to have descended from a similar dish made with crucian carp roe, it pairs rich eggs with mild, fatty winter flounder for festivals and New Year's.
- Azuki ZouniSoft round rice cakes are added to a broth of simmered red beans, the mainstream style of New Year's zoni in Tottori. Red beans have long been thought to ward off misfortune, and the dish is said to be simmered on New Year's morning with the year's first water and a purified flame, then shared among family.
- Daisen-doriA branded chicken said to be raised end-to-end, from breeding stock to processing, by producers at the foot of Mount Daisen — free-ranged longer than usual on an antibiotic-free feed aimed at balancing fat and flavor.
- Daisen OkowaShiitake, burdock, and chicken are cooked into sticky rice seasoned with soy, a dish from the foot of Mount Daisen. Said to trace back to warrior monks preparing it before battle to pray for victory, it was later served at the horse-and-cattle market by Daisen-ji temple and carried on into festivals and hospitality since.
- Daisen RubyBred at Tottori Prefecture's livestock station by crossing a sow of the oleic-acid-rich Daisen Akabuta line with a Berkshire boar, said to inherit both breeds' fat quality and tenderness.