Tai-meshi 鯛めし

When I bought Hokkaido rice “Yumepirika” 北海道米ゆめぴりか from the  New York Rice factory, I found that they offer other items which add to the enjoyment of  rice such as “frikake” ふりかけor “umeboshi” 梅干し. One such item was a kit for making “red snapper rice” or “tai-meshi” 鯛めし. I bought the kit since this reminded me of a trip we took to Matsuyama, Shikoku 四国松山 in 2017. On that trip, we ate  “Tai-meshi” (Japanese seasoned rice cooked with pieces of red snapper). The fish is caught in the “Setonaikai” in-land sea 瀬戸内海 area and “Tai-meshi” is famous for the area.

Digression alert: Below is a picture of the restaurant called “Tai-ya” 鯛や in Matsuyama where we ate the tai-meshi. It was a converted old Japanese residential house. They only serve “tai-meshi” and only for lunch. You need to make a reservation ahead of time. I do not remember but there may have been two time slots you could choose from. For most customers, the lunch is served on a low individual Japanese table in a tatami room. We just could not sit properly on tatami to eat lunch; it was far too uncomfortable.  They were kind enough to provide us with an upstairs room with chairs and Western style table. 

Here is “Tai-meshi” that we ate. It was served in a wooden rice container called “Ohitsu” お櫃. I am sure this was cooked in a traditional Japanese rice cooking iron pot called “hagama” 羽釜. It included the bottom charred part called “Okoge” おこげ. 

The first time we bought rice from the rice factory, “Yumepirika”  was not available. As compared to “Nanatsuboshi”, this one is much softer. We like “Yumepirika” better as a straight rice but for sushi, we like “Nanatsuboshi”. We also got “Mochi-rice” 餅米 called “Hokkaido Hakuchomochi” 北海道白鳥餅. This is a type of rice from which “mochi” cake is made. I like to mix this type of rice with the regular type in seasoned rice since it gives a better chewy texture.

There appear to be a few variations of  the tai-meshi dish. It turns out that the kit I bought from New York Rice Factory was a variation close to what we had at the tai-meshi restaurant in Japan. It was very similar to what we remembered from the restaurant and was pretty good. I garnished it with “Kizami-nori” 刻みのり but I should have used “mitsubishi” ミツバ. 

This kit came in a fairly large paper bag (#1 below). It contained a good amount of cooked and marinated skin-on vacuum packed red snapper chunks, seasoning sauce, a piece of kelp, bonito flakes, and a mylar pouch containing what appeared to be freeze dried deep fried tofu and shredded carrot. Following the instructions to use 2 cups of rice  (I used one cup each of “Yumepirika” and “Hakucho-mochi” rice), I rinsed the rice and added water to the level indicated in the rice cooker for two cups. I then mixed in the tai fish with its marinade, and freeze dried items and placed the kelp on the top (#2). 

Once the rice finished cooking the freeze dried items coated the surface of the rice (#3). After removing the kelp. I mixed the items coating the surface into the rice (#4).  We were quite impressed with the results. The large chunks of marinated fish were very good, the seasoning was authentically close to the dish we had in Japan. The inclusion of separate kelp and bonito flakes really added to the complexity of the flavor. The New York Rice Factory also has a kit for “Tako-meshi” タコ飯 or “octopus rice”, again famous in the In-land sea area. We may try that next when we have a chance. In any case, making and tasting “Tai-meshi” bought us back to this memory. We will have to be satisfied with such memories until we can get past this covid thing and travel again.