Shiga Food Guide: Omi Beef, Funazushi & Omi Chanpon

Nurtured by the bounty of Lake Biwa and rich natural surroundings, Shiga is a land of good eating where a highly individual food culture has flowered — from wagyu beef to fermented foods and local noodles. The many flavours fostered by the history of the Omi merchants make a trip here all the richer.

Omi Beef

A branded beef referring to Japanese Black cattle reared longest within Shiga Prefecture, registered as No. 56 under the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries' Geographical Indication (GI) protection system. The GI registration describes it as "one of the oldest branded beef lines, with production continuing for about 400 years, and also called one of the three great wagyu of Japan for its contribution to Japan's beef-eating culture and the high level of its fattening techniques," and gives as its characteristics a high content of oleic acid — an unsaturated fatty acid with a low melting point — and fat that melts well in the mouth. Its fine quality can be savoured in any preparation: sukiyaki, shabu-shabu or steak.

Funazushi

A kind of "narezushi" in which nigorobuna, a species endemic to Lake Biwa, is fermented with cooked rice by lactic acid fermentation. According to Shiga Prefecture, nigorobuna caught in early spring are salted, then washed and packed with rice around the dog days of summer; by around New Year the acidity has increased and the bones have become soft, and it is ready to eat. Its strong acidity, mellow aroma and the deep umami that spreads as you chew make it a delicacy people describe as "addictive," and it goes exceptionally well with sake. It is the dish that symbolises Shiga's fermented food culture.

Omi Chanpon

A local noodle dish that originated in Hikone. Unlike Nagasaki chanpon, it is characterised by a light soy-sauce-flavoured soup with a Japanese-style dashi. Together with a generous quantity of vegetables, it has a gentle flavour that makes you want to drink every last drop. The local way is to add vinegar from the table to change the flavour partway through.

Red Konnyaku

A speciality of Omihachiman: konnyaku of a vivid red. It is coloured with ferric oxide, and although the visual impact is striking, the taste is that of ordinary konnyaku with no odd flavour. It adds colour to the table in simmered dishes, oden and as sashimi-style konnyaku.

Decchi Yokan

A rustic steamed yokan (sweet bean jelly) handed down in various parts of Shiga Prefecture. Wrapped in bamboo sheath and only mildly sweet, it is perfect with tea or as a souvenir. It is an old-fashioned local flavour in which the history of the region lives on.

Shigaraki Pottery Tableware

Eating from a Shigaraki bowl at a local restaurant is an authentic Shiga dining experience.

Ebimame: Carrying the Wish "May You Live Diligently"

Essential to any account of the Shiga table are the preserved side dishes made with the small bounty of Lake Biwa. The classic example is "ebimame." According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries' "Our Local Cuisine" project, it is a dish of lake shrimp (sujiebi) from Lake Biwa simmered with soybeans in a sweet-savoury seasoning, and the soybeans used were once grown on the ridges between rice paddies. A farming practice that wasted not even the edge of a field turns directly into a single plate.

The dish has long been served at celebrations, memorial services and festivals, and its name is said to carry a wish for long life: "may you live diligently (mame ni), until your back is bent like a shrimp's." It is also indispensable on auspicious days such as New Year.

Vinegar is used in the cooking, which both softens the shrimp shells and improves keeping quality. It can be made from inexpensive ingredients, keeps well and is rich in calcium and protein — a good reflection of a region where preserved foods mattered, not least through the snowy winters of the northern lake area. Its appeal lies in the contrast between the fragrance of the shrimp simmered to an amber colour and the fluffy texture of the soybeans, and it is a pleasure that it can be eaten all year round. Enjoyed throughout the prefecture, it appears in school lunches and is also sold as a processed product for bento boxes and as a souvenir.

Junjun: The Sound the Pot Makes, Turned into the Name of the Dish

"Junjun" is a sukiyaki-style hotpot handed down within Shiga Prefecture. The origin of its name is quite charming: according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the "jun-jun" sound made when the ingredients simmer in the pot became the name of the dish itself. The steam rising from the pot set on the table and the sound of the broth bubbling — a name that lets you imagine the very atmosphere of the moment just by saying it.

The ingredients include Omi beef and chicken, as well as lake fish such as isaza goby, eel and catfish, simmered together with seasonal vegetables. Also very much of this place are the additions of Shiga's traditional vegetables such as Toyoura negi and Azuchi Shinnai negi, choji-fu wheat gluten with its distinctive bite, and the red konnyaku mentioned above. At celebrations such as New Year and Obon it is made with beef or chicken, while versions using lake fish have been especially popular in the areas around Lake Biwa — the northern, western and eastern lake districts and Okishima island. Today it is eaten all year round using seasonal ingredients.

Ame-no-io Gohan: Tasting the "Phantom Fish" of Lake Biwa

The biwa trout, a species endemic to Lake Biwa, is a freshwater fish of the salmon family that normally lives in the deep parts of the lake — a "phantom fish." Rice cooked with this fish is "ame-no-io gohan." "Ame-no-io" means "rain fish," a name derived from the sight of biwa trout swimming up the rivers when the rivers rise with rain during the autumn spawning season. It can be called a precious seasonal dish, the moment when a fish of the deep lake bed meets human life.

Because biwa trout lose their fat during the spawning season, the dish is said to have been devised as a way of eating them well; the fish is cooked with carrot, shiitake and abura-age. The aroma of fish and soy sauce that drifts up even while the rice is cooking whets the appetite, and the flaked flesh goes exceptionally well with rice that has absorbed the broth. The ingredients differ by area, and it is called "ame-no-io gohan" in the southern and western lake districts and "masu-meshi" in the northern lake district. In 1998 it was selected as one of the "Food Cultural Properties of Shiga," a Shiga Prefecture selected intangible folk cultural property. It is in season in autumn. It is also served as sashimi, and the fatty sashimi of biwa trout is one of the flavours that represent autumn in this lake country.

Best Season

It can be enjoyed all year round, but Omi beef sukiyaki is something you crave from autumn into winter. Each speciality can be tasted at local-cuisine restaurants in Hikone, Nagahama, Omihachiman and Otsu.

Access

Local-cuisine restaurants are scattered around Hikone, Nagahama, Otsu and elsewhere. Omi beef yakiniku and sukiyaki can be enjoyed at specialist restaurants in Hikone and Omihachiman.

Practical Information

• Seasons: Omi beef can be enjoyed all year round. According to Shiga Prefecture, for funazushi the nigorobuna caught in early spring are salted, then washed and packed with rice around the dog days of summer; by around New Year the acidity has increased and the bones have become soft, and it is ready to eat.
• Main areas where these are served: Omi beef at specialist restaurants throughout the prefecture, in Omihachiman, Hikone, Otsu and elsewhere. Funazushi at local-cuisine restaurants and producers along the shore of Lake Biwa. Omi chanpon is served mainly in Hikone City, at shops certified by the Omi Chanpon Association.
• Points to note: "Omi beef" is defined as "Japanese Black cattle reared longest within Shiga Prefecture" and is registered as No. 56 under the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries' Geographical Indication (GI) protection system. When buying or eating it, checking for the GI mark or a certificate gives peace of mind. Because funazushi has a strong acidity and aroma from lactic acid fermentation, first-timers are advised to try a small amount.

*Opening hours and prices at individual shops vary from establishment to establishment.*

*(Sources: Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Geographical Indication (GI) registration No. 56 "Omi Beef"; Shiga Prefecture official website, "Funazushi")*