HIGASHI-YAMA Tokyo

For the third year of FOOD NIPPON, we have been featuring Oita Prefecture.
In order to share with you the wonderful charm of Oita, we will introduce our very own reinterpretations of the food of Oita for each of the four seasons this year.

Following the last FOOD NIPPON 2015 Spring event which featured “fermentation,” we will continue to explore the food culture of the area through a theme of “folklore” for the FOOD NIPPON 2015 Summer event starting Monday, June 1st.

We met Mrs. Sayuko Kanamaru, chairwoman of a local food workshop called “Tougarashi,” who opened her workshop to pass on her lessons for cooking tougarashi, which is the Japanese word for chili pepper. She teaches that the green leaves of the chili pepper should be prepared as tsukudani (cooked in soy sauce) or pickled in miso and that when the chili pepper turns green, it should be used to make yuzukosho (a spicy garnish of yuzu citrus and chili peppers). As for the peppers when they are red and have ripened, she teaches that they should be used for pickled leaf mustard during the spring, preserved in salted rice-bran paste during the summer, and pickled with Chinese cabbage in the winter. Planting chili peppers requires a great deal of diligent housekeeping throughout the entire year, and it is said that a house which grows chili peppers well will flourish. These teachings have been passed on through generations, from mother to child, as wisdom of life.

We also encountered various local dishes of the region, one of which is called kachiebi chirashizushi. The dish uses rice that has been steamed with dried small red prawns called kachiebi, which locals consider to be familiar lucky charms, and then mixed with vinegar and topped with seasonal vegetables, sweetened beans, and shiitake mushrooms that have been cooked in soy sauce and sugar. This colorful dish is typically enjoyed on special occasions. The scene of people preparing kachiebi used to be a typical picture of summer in Usa City of Nagasu in Oita. In its heyday, there used to be more than twenty factories they called “prawn houses” which produced the kachiebi, but most have closed down, leaving only three to remain. It would be unfortunate for such an iconic dish to dissipate, and so in this way, kachiebi chirashizushi has given us the opportunity to think about the richness and deliciousness of Japan that should continue to be passed on to the next generations.

Since Oita boasts the largest production of madake (Japanese timber bamboo) in the country, we visited several bamboo craft ateliers and local Onta-yaki potters who have been passing down secret techniques and traditions from one generation to the next since the early 1700s, when pottery was founded in the villages of Oita. Working closely with and learning from local craftsmen of the area, we have prepared FOOD NIPPON original tableware to be used throughout the event as a way to accentuate the cuisine.

We chose to feature Oita so that we could pass on the rich culture we encountered during our visits with various local farmers and craftsmen. We hope you will come to enjoy the food of Oita.

We are looking forward to your visit.