🍚 Gomoku-meshi (Five Ingredients Rice)

“Gomoku-meshi” is made for special days such as festivals and farmers' holidays. With its lineup of colorful ingredients including "kanpyo", dried shiitake, carrots, burdock root, snow peas, abura-age and thin omelet strips, it is a traditional food that is perfect for formal occasions. The main ingredient, "kanpyo", has in Japan over 99% of its production in Tochigi Prefecture, which is the number one producer in Japan (according to the 2018 Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries survey); and thus is a specialty product that represents Tochigi Prefecture, particularly the southern region where its cultivation flourishes. Nutrition-wise, "kanpyo" contains much calcium and potassium, and is also abundant in dietary fiber. It is a dried food product in which strips of the bottle gourd fruit are thinly peeled and then dried in direct sunlight.