# Sanmameshi ｜ Our Regional Cuisines

**Cuisine Name**: Sanmameshi

**Region**: Our Regional Cuisines

## Main Lore Areas
The central north region

## Main Ingredients Used
Rice, Saury, and Fresh ginger

## History, Origin, and Related Events
Even in Yamanashi Prefecture, which has no sea, fresh, high-quality saury becomes available in autumn. “Sanmameshi” is a dish made by cooking this seasonal saury and new rice together. “Sanmameshi” was indispensable as a feast for farmers to celebrate the successful completion of their autumn harvest. According to one old theory, at the end of the rice harvest, at “the Ebisu-ko Festival ”(which began in the early Showa era), two or three salted sauries (dried) that a trader came from Niigata to sell and one sho of new rice were cooked, and this became the “sanmameshi” that we know today. Even today, many households continue to make this recipe as it is a method of simply lining up the saury and cooking it with rice, resulting in a delicious meal even on busy days.

## Opportunities and Times of Eating Habits
It was made in autumn, when the rice harvest was over and saury and new rice were available, especially on celebratory days. Even now, it is made and eaten in every household when it is in season.

## How to Eat
30 minutes before cooking, wash the rice and drain it in a colander. Put rice, saury fillets, water, sake, and soy sauce in the rice pot and cook. Once cooked, remove the saury fillets and break them up into flakes. Return the saury flakes to the rice and mix in the shredded fresh ginger. Some recipes involve cooking the saury raw, while others involve grilling it on a mesh before mixing it in. In either case, in addition to fresh ginger, perilla and yuzu can also be mixed in for a delicious dish while reducing the characteristic bitterness of blue-backed fish.

## Efforts for Preservation and Succession
In addition to being made in each household, it has been selected as one of the 47 representative “Special Yamanashi Foods” narrowed down from 176 local food items that Yamanashi Prefecture is working to pass down to the next generation. Additionally, at the “14th National Food Education Promotion Tournament in Yamanashi” held in 2019, a sample of “sanmameshi” was provided as a local food of Yamanashi Prefecture.

## Ingredients
- Rice: 2 cups
- Water: 2 cups
- Pacific saury (fillet): 250g 2 large saury if using raw saury
- Sake: 40g
- Soy sauce: 40g
- Fresh ginger: 50g
- Perilla: An appropriate amount

## Recipe
1. 1. Wash the rice 30 minutes before cooking and drain it in a colander.
2. 2. Cut the ginger into 2mm-wide strips.
3. 3. Put the rice from 1, the saury fillets, water, sake, and soy sauce into a rice pot and cook.
4. 4. Once cooked, remove the saury fillets and break them apart into flakes.
5. 5. Return the saury flakes in step 4 to the pot, add the ginger from step 2, and mix.
6. 6. Serve in bowls and top with perilla if desired.

## Provider Information
provider : ”Yamanashi Food: The Whole Experience Handbook”

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