On March 11, 2011, a massive earthquake hit eastern Japan, particularly the Tohoku region, and the resulting tsunami was indescribably devastating. Since October 2011, the “Tohoku Fukko Bento – Tohoku’s Blessings with All My Heart” has been sold as an ekiben that includes foods from the food industry in the Tohoku region. This is the 13th edition of the series, which has undergone a series of renewals.
The rice is chahan (rice cooked with Hitomebore from Miyagi Prefecture, dashi with Sameshibushi from Aomori Prefecture, and Hinai Jidori chicken broth from Akita Prefecture. On top of the rice is “Nasai Chicken” from Iwate Prefecture and cucumbers pickled in miso. This alone is enough to bring the five prefectures of the Tohoku region to mind. Incidentally, the miso-pickled cucumbers are made by Kanno Pickles, a company founded and still headquartered in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture. On the back of the wrapping paper are the names of all the companies that provide the food.
The six separate side dish areas are packed with delicacies from each of the six Tohoku prefectures. The fried cabbage in the Aomori area is made with local garlic and salted malt, and the presence of garlic is felt with gusto. The yam and lotus root produced in the prefecture have a crisp taste. Despite the small space, each has a strong individuality. The anago (conger eel) stew from the Miyagi area is soft and thickly seasoned, while the sasakamashi with beef tongue has an impressive sasakamashi-like texture and strong beef tongue flavor.
The next dish from the Iwate Prefecture area was Sanriku salmon marinated in miso. The salmon itself has a good taste, and the miso flavor, which is just the right amount, is also quite delicious. The miso is also made from Iwate soybeans. The wakame seaweed in the stir-fry dish hidden underneath is from Kita-Sanriku. It has a good texture, and its slimy texture gives it a strong oceanic flavor.
Fukushima beef hamburger steak topped with “Takada Ume” salted malt sauce. This unique hamburger steak with a lot of ume flavor has a strong meaty texture, and although it is small, it has a good presence. On top of the hamburger is a sweetened Fukushima-grown peach. The bright green color makes it look like a dessert at first glance, but when you try it, you will realize that it is a side dish.
Akita Prefecture is home to Ganmodoki, a type of stew including ganmodoki, using the prefecture’s shotsuru. One would think it would be grouper because it is from Akita, but this is codfish with shotsuru. The gently seasoned ganmodoki is paired with a thickly seasoned wild vegetable soy sauce stew. I was surprised at the softness of the thick burdock root used in this dish. The last dish is Yamagata Prefecture’s raw sweet potato tamakonnyaku. While the tamakonnyaku was lightly seasoned, the bamboo shoots and carrots were sweetly seasoned. Now all six prefectures in the Tohoku region were represented.
The cover was designed by Taku Furuyama, a painter and illustrator born in Iwate Prefecture. The ekiben series, which was launched in 2011, has already shipped more than 1 million meals. In addition to its economic effect, the ekiben series seems to have helped keep the memories of the horror and hardship of natural disasters that have unfortunately occurred in various parts of Japan since then alive.
© Source travel watch
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