🍚 Tofumeshi (Tofu and Rice)

The dish is called "tofumeshi (tofu and rice)," in which ingredients such as boiled tofu, carrots, burdock root, and mackerel boiled in water are fried and mixed with freshly cooked rice. It is a regional dish handed down from about 120 years ago in the Oyama district of Tamba-Sasayama. During gatherings in the region, preparing food for a crowd of people was no laughing matter, so it was suggested that seniors should prepare something by mixing side dishes with rice. It is said that the dish was born out of that suggestion. Regardless of being a village in a mountain valley, the village had mackerel. The reason the village had mackerel was that it obtained mackerel pickled in salt. It obtained mackerel pickled in salt because one of the "mackerel highways," which were routes to transport fish such as mackerel from Wakasa Bay to Kyoto, led to this region. During the slack season for farmers in the Tamba district beginning in the middle of the Edo period, many seasonal brewers would go to the sake breweries in Nada to work away from home. It is said that when those brewers would depart, tofumeshi (tofu and rice) would be packed in the box lunches that hung from their waists.