# Dondoroke-meshi ｜ Our Regional Cuisines

**Cuisine Name**: Dondoroke-meshi

**Region**: Our Regional Cuisines

## Main Lore Areas
Eastern and central areas

## Main Ingredients Used
Rice, shiitake, tofu, konjac noodles, burdock root, carrots, fried tofu triangles

## History, Origin, and Related Events
Rice cooked with tofu and locally grown vegetables is called "dondoroke-meshi" in the eastern to central areas of Tottori Prefecture. "Dondoroke" means "thunder" in the regional dialect. The name comes from the fact that the powerful, repeated sounds tofu makes when added to a hot pan with oil in it resembles thunder.In the past, tofu was a delicacy and a precious source of protein. It is said that village had its own tofu cabin, where a number of people gathered and made tofu from home-grown soybeans. This is a traditional food with all sorts of locally grown ingredients, which uses seasonal vegetables that can be picked at the time including carrots, burdock root, and green onions, dried shiitake or fried tofu slices which bring out the flavors of the takikomi gohan (rice cooked with ingredients). In the past, it was vegetable-only, but chicken meat began to be included in the Showa period, when people started raising chickens. Originally it was a takikomi-gohan, but from the mid-Showa period on when rice cookers became popularized, it has gradually become a maze-gohan (rice that is cooked and then mixed with ingredients).

## Opportunities and Times of Eating Habits
It is said that it was made without fail after the rice-planting season or during pauses in farm work when villagers would gather. It was eaten during cold periods when it was easy to get injured.

## How to Eat
First, saute the tofu; next add the vegetables and fried tofu, and saute. Add this to the rice cooker along with rice and dashi broth, and let cook. Adding chicken or konjac is another tasty option. Lightly and simply seasoned, it will make you want to eat more of it.

## Efforts for Preservation and Succession
Nowadays it has become rare for people to gather in villages and make "dondoroke-meshi," there's a group active in Ketakacho in Tottori City that wishes to propagate this dish. In "Inaba's Jige Lunchboxes" ("jige" means "local"), collected at the "2009 Tottori/Inaba Festival," which introduces Inaba's unique culture and features to the entire nation, this group won a prize for their entry, a dondoroke lunchbox containing dondoroke-meshi. There are also new developments linked to the revitalization of the area, such as dondoroke-meshi appearing in school lunches, and shops serving "dondoroke foods" which are variations on dondoroke-meshi.

## Ingredients
- Rice: 400g
- Tofu: 400g
- Dried shiitake mushroom: 4 pieces
- konnyaku thread: 50g
- burdock root: 50g
- carrot: 50g
- Large triangular deep-fried tofu: 100g
- Oil: 20g
- Sake: 30g
- Light soy sauce: 40g
- Dashi broth (soup stock from dried shiitake mushrooms): 400ml
- Green onion: 50g (cut into small pieces)

## Recipe
1. 1. Drain off the water from the tofu.
2. 2. Soak dried shiitake mushrooms in water and cut into thin strips.
3. 3. Boil konnyaku quickly and cut into chunks.
4. 4. Cut burdock root into small pieces and drain off the scum.
5. 5. Cut carrots into thin strips and fried tofu into 2 cm long strips.
6. 6. Heat oil in a pan and fry tofu until golden brown. Add gobo (burdock root), shiitake mushrooms, carrots, konnyaku threads, and deep-fried tofu, and saute briefly, then add sake and soy sauce.
7. 7. Mix rice and all of 6 ingredients in a rice cooker, add soup stock and cook.
8. 8. Mix the cooked rice with green onions and serve.

## Provider Information
provider : Tottori Dietetic Association

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