🍱 Amenoio gohan

Ame no Io Gohan" is rice cooked with Biwa trout, a species endemic to Lake Biwa. Ame-no-io" is another name for loach trout, which come up to the lake to spawn when the rains come and the rivers rise. In 1998, "Ame no io gohan" (rice with rice) using a whole loach trout, which spawns in the fall, was selected as one of Shiga Prefecture's Intangible Folk Cultural Assets of Shiga Prefecture. The recipe and ingredients differ among the Koto, Kosai, Kohoku, and Konan regions, with some adding fillets of loquat trout, while others use carrots, shiitake mushrooms, mushrooms, fried tofu, and other ingredients. In the Konan and Kosei regions, it is called "Ame no Io Gohan" (rice with rice cake), while in the Kohoku region, it is called "Masu Gohan" (rice with trout). Biwa trout were "phantom fish" that were difficult to catch with old-fashioned fishing gear because they lived deep in the lake. The rare chance for the people of the village to encounter this fantastic fish was in the fall, when they come up the river to spawn. It is said that this dish was devised in order to make the Miwamasu more tasty because the fat of the Miwamasu in the fall has decreased.