Skip to main content.

Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries

Character Size
Standard
Large
Menu
  1. Home
  2. Policies
  3. Food Export
  4. kyodo_ryori
  5. SEARCH&MENU
  6. Yamanashi
  7. Sanmameshi

Sanmameshi ｜ Our Regional Cuisines

  • Yamanashi Prefecture

    Sanmameshi

Sanmameshi

＊画像はイメージです（掲載画像とレシピの内容は異なる場合があります）。
Related images
Please refer to “Links and Copyrights” for information on secondary use of images.(Term of use)

  • Main lore areas

    The central north region

  • Main ingredients used

    Rice, Saury, and Fresh ginger

  • History/origin/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.

RECIPE

Ingredients (For 3 to 4 people)

  • 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

How to cook

  • 1. Wash the rice 30 minutes before cooking and drain it in a colander.

  • 2. Cut the ginger into 2mm-wide strips.

  • 3. Put the rice from 1, the saury fillets, water, sake, and soy sauce into a rice pot and cook.

  • 4. Once cooked, remove the saury fillets and break them apart into flakes.

  • 5. Return the saury flakes in step 4 to the pot, add the ginger from step 2, and mix.

  • 6. Serve in bowls and top with perilla if desired.

provider : ”Yamanashi Food: The Whole Experience Handbook”

Recipes vary depending on the region and home.

Contact

Food Cultures Office, Overseas Market Development and Food Cultures Division, Food Industry Affairs Bureau, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries

Tel:+81-3-3502-5516

Top of This Page

MAFF Social Media

  • MAFF Facebook
  • MAFF YouTube

MAFF

Address : 1-2-1,Kasumigaseki,Chiyoda-ku,Tokyo 100-8950,Japan.

TEL : 03-3502-8111

Enterprise identification number : 5000012080001

Copyright : Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries