🍱 Bibai no torimeshi

Bibai torimeshi" is a local dish of Bibai City that is still enjoyed at home. It is said to have originated in the Meiji period (1868-1912), when the development of Hokkaido was promoted in earnest. Toyojiro Nakamura, a farmer who settled in the Nakamura area of present-day Bibai, encouraged chicken farming by giving his tenant farmers a pair of chickens to raise until rice cultivation got underway, out of concern for the health and livelihood of the farmers. Later, when rice production began to increase, the farmers would serve "torimeshi" (rice with chicken meat) to their guests, which was made by mashing the chickens and cooking them with rice. Even today, local women in the Nakamura area continue the tradition of making "torimeshi," also known as "Nakamura no torimeshi.