🍱 Wakame musubi

Facing the Sea of Japan, Hagi City in Yamaguchi Prefecture is a treasure house of marine products such as yellowfin puffer fish, amadai (Pacific bluefin bream), and settsuki horse mackerel. Among these, wakame seaweed heralds the arrival of spring in the Hagi area. In this area, freshly harvested wakame seaweed is hung to dry along the coast in the spring. The pleasant smell of the ocean spreading its fragrance is a well-known spring scene among the locals. The dried seaweed is then eaten as "wakame musubi," a type of rice ball topped with wakame. In the past, many families used to go to the sea to pick wakame seaweed by themselves, chop it up after it was dried, and put it in cans. Dried wakame could be served as it is over rice, but it was often added to lunch boxes as "wakame musubi," and it is still loved today as a taste of one's hometown. The history of this dish dates back to the Edo period (1603-1867), when it was served at an inn in Yashima during the Edo period (1603-1868). There is an anecdote that a maid was surprised when she saw a samurai from the Choshu domain sprinkling chopped wakame she had brought with her on top of rice, saying, "Samurai from Choshu eat rice with tea leaves on it.