🍚 Chagayu(Tea Porridge)
“Rice porridge,” a dish said to have originated from the Nara region, has taken root as a local delicacy in other regions outside the Yamaguchi Prefecture. At the beginning of the 17th century in Yamaguchi, Yoshikawa, lord of the Iwakuni Domain, encouraged the practice of making rice porridge to save rice, and it supposedly spread to various parts of the prefecture, including Yanai City and Suooshima Town. The rice porridge of Yamaguchi Prefecture is characterized by boiling roasted coarse tea in a tea bag in a Kanko, a special iron kettle. It has a smooth texture and is often eaten warm in the winter and cooled in the summer. Although originally passed down between the common folk as a daily meal, each family had their own elaborate secrets on how to cook the porridge, and the dish was viewed as being quite elegant. In Suooshima and the Yannai area, “potato porridge” was also popular thanks to a boom in sweet potatoes.