Cook the local flavors once more

Octopus rice (tako-meshi)

From: Through the Cat Alley to our house in Onomichi

A bowl of octopus rice topped with green onions

A regional dish of Hiroshima handed down in Mihara, Onomichi and Fukuyama. It is said to have begun as a fishermen's meal: freshly caught octopus chopped up and cooked with rice on board the boat. The Seto Inland Sea is one of Japan's great habitats for common octopus, and the waters off Mihara, clean and full of rocky seabed, have supported octopus fishing since the Edo period. Because the currents are fast, the octopus cling hard to the rocks, which makes their legs thick, short and firm. The usual ingredients are rice, octopus, carrot, burdock and fried tofu, cooked with dashi, soy sauce and sake.

Ingredients

Rice
Octopus (local, from the Seto Inland Sea)
Carrot
Fried tofu (aburaage)
Soy sauce
Green onions

How I made it

Cut the carrot into thin sticks
Chop a boiled octopus leg into bite-sized pieces
Put the rice, octopus, carrot and fried tofu in a pot, season with soy sauce and cook
Fold gently once cooked, serve in bowls and scatter chopped green onions on top

Sources: maff.go.jp

This moment in the journey

Freshly cooked, on the veranda

I served the freshly cooked octopus rice into a white bowl and scattered chopped green onions on top. Cook local cuisine using local ingredients, and enjoy it freshly made, right there on the spot: that is how you come to love a place even more.

I carried the whole pot out to the round table on the veranda facing the garden. Each mouthful had the bite of the octopus and the aroma of soy sauce. Beyond the garden tree and the black wooden fence, the houses of the town peeked through. A perfectly happy lunch in the autumn light.

Watch this scene on YouTube1:36

Read this scene in the full journey