🍚 Nara-chameshi (Nara savoury rice with various ingredients)
Rice cooked with chestnuts, soybeans, azuki beans, millet, and tea. Originally, this dish was eaten by monks at Todaiji Temple and Kofukuji Temple in Nara, and was introduced to Kawasaki. During the Edo period (1603-1867), Kawasaki-juku, an inn town, one of the 53 stations of the Tokaido Road, was a busy place for people to come and go. “Nara-chameshi” was served at Mannen-ya, a teahouse in Kawasaki-juku, along with "shijimi" (clam) miso soup and nara-zuke (pickled melon), and was very popular among travelers. It is a quick and tasty dish, similar to today's fast food, and was so popular in the late Edo period that even feudal lords would stop by for lunch. The name became known throughout Japan after a scene in "Tokai-Dochu-Hizakurige" by author Jippensha- Ikku depicted Yaji and Kita eating “Nara-chameshi” at” Mannen-ya”. The business of “Mannen-ya” closed down and “Nara-chameshi” in Kawasaki ceased to exist, but the taste was recreated based on literature and served with “Miso” soup with “Shijimi “(clam) and other ingredients at the "Big Kawasaki-juku Festival" held in 2001. Today, a Japanese confectionery store in the city has developed a modernized version of “Nara-chameshi”, called "Nara-chameshi-style Okowa," which is attracting attention as a new specialty of Kawasaki.