🍚 Houhan (Cooked Buckwheat and Rice)

Long time ago, there was less rice available in rural areas, so local foods used buckwheat or buckwheat rice instead of white rice were popular in Tokushima. ‘Houhan', one of these foods, is prepared by making buckwheat porridge and rice separately, then served the porridge on top of rice, and mixed to eat. This dish was invented to keep it stomach for a long time by adding buckwheat and vegetables. The name ‘Houhan' means that buckwheat rice ‘wraps' (‘tsutsumu' in Japanese – the Chinese letter for ‘tsutsumu' can be pronounced ‘hou'.) rice. It is said that the buckwheat porridge from Iya area was delivered to villages over mountains, then changed to ‘houhan'.