The best rice comes from Niigata
I wrote about Niigata and the sake festival that’s coming up but one thing I would like to point out is the quality of rice that comes out from that prefecture. You see, rice is an integral, if not most essential, part of cooking in Japan. It’s importance is unsurmountable although modern day foodies have claimed that the importance of rice has dwindled in the generation. What I mean by insurmountable is the fact that, despite it’s supposed dwindling importance, rice has managed to remain in the modern day Japanese’s lifestyle in more ways than one — it is here to stay.
For example, the rice cakes (onigiri) that so many love as snacks daily regardless of age or trend. Or mochi, that sweet chewy stuff everyone loves and cannot do without during the New Year? Or sake, a drink that is importantly popular and unique to Japan and sushi, the mother of all Japanese food to the commercial world. All of these foods need rice and the best rice comes from the Niigata region, touted as the rice capitol of Japan.
Niigata is known throughout Japan as the home of Koshihikari rice, sworn by many to be the best in Japan. The region is also known for its severe winters and heavy snowfall. The Echigo Plain, sometimes referred to as Japan’s rice belt, stretches far and wide around the city of Niigata, home to around 810,000 people. Niigata’s abundant harvest of high-grade rice yields some of the most sought-after sakes and rice crackers in Japan.
You can read more about the region in the link above but there is one recipe that I would love to share with you. It’s a specialty from west of Niigata called Sasazushi. It’s bamboo leaf wrapped sushi and it’s especially similar to it’s South East Asian counterpart called Lemang, glutinous rice cooked in bamboo casing. In any case, it looks something like these although there is no set ways of making it and recipe varies from family to family.
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