Chiba prefecture

[torakris]

Chiba prefecture apaprently has the name "kitchen of Edo" because it has been a main production for fresh foods for the capital since old times.

here are some links to local foods from Chiba:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...01entry723301

What do you look for on your visits there?

[torakris]

these probably don't count as Chiba local foods, but since Disneyland IS located in Chiba....

http://www.tokyodisneyresort.co.jp/tdl/jap...oods/okasi.html

[Hiroyuki]

Needless to say, peanuts.

Do you know how to say peanuts in Japanese? - rakkasei, spelled 落花生.

The first Chinese character means fall or drop, the second flower, and the third born (as in a baby is born), suggesting how peanuts are grown underground.

Boiled peanuts (yude rakkasei) have been popular recently.

http://www.kawasouen.co.jp/shohin/rakkasei/satonoka.htm

http://www.rakkasei.com/yude.html

[torakris]

what about namerou?

fish like aji (horse mackeral) or iwashi (sardines) are chopped up rather finely and mixed with miso, scallions, ginger, etc.

I think I have eaten this on almost every trip I have had to Chiba, and for some reason we seem to go to Chiba a lot....

namerou:

http://www.agri.pref.chiba.jp/nourinsui/12...pic/namerou.jpg

[helenjp]

Chiba Bussan has all sorts of peanut products, including a very forgettable peanut-miso pickle (a sweet paste). They also sell Peanut Sable, a crumbly cookie made iwth ground peanuts. And FINALLY they have started stocking a very nice peanut butter, which includes kinako, and is not unbearably sweet or full of added shortening.

Choshi is still a big fishing port, and sardines are probably their main catch, also sauries at this time of year.

Chiba may have been where the first dairy cows were reintroduced into Japan last century (Japan's imperial family drank milk and milk sweets back in the Nara period, I believe). The Chiba cows were originally imported from India to provide milk for fine horses (the uplands east of Matsudo, where we live, were originally in imperial hunting ground where horses ran free most of the year too). Chiba dairy farming is now mostly concentrated in the south of the peninsula. The market for fresh milk in Tokyo takes most of the production, and I can't recall seeing even one Chiba cheese product, except for those produced for daytrippers at theme park-type farms such as Mother Bokujo.

The northwestern part of Chiba where I live was originally marshy river floodplains spreading out from the Edo river, although flooding was controlled by massive dykes built during the Edo period. Green vegetables and some rice are still grown here, but the area was particularly known for shoyu and mirin - and as an offshoot of this, the area has a lot of shoyu and fermented rice pickles, in contrast to the salt and miso pickles which are more common in colder areas. Orchard fruits are grown on the uplands, and this area is the homeland of the Nijusseiki nashi. There are still numerous nashi orchards in the area, mostly growing Kosui (my favorite variety) and Hosui nashi.

The "kitchen of Edo" reputation can still be seen in the location of one of Japan's few national university horticulture departments in Matsudo - although most of the students these days are city born and bred!

The mudflats at Funabashi were well preseved for many years because the area was a landing place for imperial use, but it has now been filled in to the extent that Funabashi is well back from the coastline. People still go on clam-digging outings in spring and summer, though I think they are very brave to eat shellfish from Tokyo Bay!

[melonpan]

The Chiba cows were originally imported from India to provide milk for fine horses...

i had no idea that the better off horses in the world drank cow milk. and to think some people imported cows for this purpose...

Orchard fruits are grown on the uplands, and this area is the homeland of the Nijusseiki nashi. There are still numerous nashi orchards in the area, mostly growing Kosui (my favorite variety) and Hosui nashi.

u pick asian pears are hard to find in the states but they exist. are there such orchards in chiba? actually do u pick places exist at all anywhere in japan?

[helenjp]

Yes, quite a few pick your own orchards around - mainly grapes and nashi in this area.