🍱 Mazemeshi

"Mazemeshi" is a dish that always appears at local events and celebrations where people gather. Also called "Gumeshi", it is made by chopping and stir-frying ingredients such as chicken, gobou(=burdock), carrots, dried shiitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots, fried thin tofu, etc., seasoned with soy sauce and sugar, and mixed with freshly cooked warm rice. Ingredients vary from region to region and from household to household, such as konjac(=yam cake) and "kamaboko(=fish cake)", sea bream and maki mussels in areas near the sea, and plenty of daikon radish during the daikon radish harvest season. Rokka Shrine in Shimorokka, Kashima Town, holds an annual autumn festival on October 17 to pray for a bountiful harvest, during which each household makes "Gumeshi (Mazemeshi)" and serves it to gathered relatives and neighbors. Instead of chicken, it uses horse meat, a specialty of the prefecture, and seasonal vegetables such as gobou(=burdock), dried shiitake mushrooms, konjac(=yam cake), and carrots, which are stir-fried and seasoned with soy sauce and sugar, and mixed with white rice. The "Shishimai" dedicated at this festival is the first important intangible cultural asset in Kumamoto Prefecture, and is derived from Kiyomasa Kato's tiger hunting, and depicts a child growing up to become a warrior and bravely fighting a lion. On Tobase Island, located halfway between the Uto Peninsula and Amakusa, there is a mixed rice dish called "birin meshi" that uses tofu instead of meat. The name comes from the sound made when the tofu is stir-fried to remove the water. It was served at Buddhist ceremonies as a vegetarian dish.