Photo/Illutration Tricolor soboro chicken (Photo by Airi Matsuo)

It is spring, time to get excited about new jobs or school years. No matter how awful the state of the world is now, cooking is a good way to feel connected, to gain resilience and show our love.

Let me introduce a basic station bento from Fukuoka--a tricolor bento with ground chicken, called kashiwa meshi.

This venerable ekiben has been sold for at least a century at Orio Station on the Kagoshima main line and the Chikuho main line in Kyushu. In the 1920s to 1930s, a dozen vendors would rush to train coaches as they pulled in to sell this popular bento to passengers.

Today, one vendor, Hideyuki Kominami, still works the platforms most days except Wednesdays. He seems to be the only regular vendor of ekiben in Japan, according to Tochikuken, the producer of kashiwa meshi.

Not only has Tochikuken maintained the bento’s same delicious flavor for the past 100 years, but the company also still sells them in a bento box made of paper-thin wood, using no plastic or paper. The wooden box removes just enough moisture from the rice to keep it tasty. It is also antibacterial.

I hope that Kominami-san’s smile, the wooden boxes and, of course, the flavor will continue on.

My version is simple. When I went to high school in Okayama, my mother packed my lunch each day, and this tricolor bento was standard fare. Sweet and a little spicy, it continues to be my comfort food.

You could swap out the chicken with pork or plant-based “meat,” or substitute spinach for the nori seaweed, same as Tochikuken. Give it a try!

■ Tricolor soboro chicken ■
Ingredients for 2 servings

Tori soboro (ground chicken) topping

200 grams ground chicken / 2 Tbsp soy sauce / 1.5 Tbsp sugar / 1.5 Tbsp mirin / 1 Tbsp sake rice wine

Kinshi tamago (rolled egg crepe) garnish

2 eggs / 2/3 Tbsp sugar / 1 Tbsp milk / 1 tsp potato starch / 1 tsp oil
Optional

Steamed rice (as much as you like) / boiled spinach or shredded nori seaweed / red pickled ginger

Directions:

1. Make soboro. Place all ingredients in a pot.

2. Cook over medium heat, stirring well. Continue stirring over heat for about 5 minutes.

3. Mixture is ready when the color darkens. Turn off heat when only a little moisture remains.

4. Make egg crepe. Combine all ingredients, excluding oil, in a small bowl and stir well.

5. Add oil to a rolled egg pan and spread evenly. Warm over low heat.

6. Add a small amount of the egg mixture and spread thinly, so it barely covers the pan’s surface. Cook it over low heat for about a minute.

7. Repeat the same procedures for cooking the remaining egg mixture.

8. Roll the crepes. Cut into 1-2 cm rings.

9. Place rice into a bento box.

10. Put soboro on top of a third of the rice.

11. Add boiled spinach on a third of rice opposite the soboro.

12. Place rolled egg crepe pieces at the center.

13. Garnish with red pickled ginger.

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Scan this QR code with your smartphone to view the recipe video in English.
https://www.youtube.com/c/PenandSpoon

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This article originally appeared in the April 3, 2022, issue of Asahi Weekly.

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Chikako Tada

Chikako Tada: The author of seven cookbooks, Tada is a Japanese food journalist and editor of Pen & Spoon, a website devoted to food (https://pen-and-spoon.com/). She worked as a newspaper reporter for 12 years before going freelance. She spent two years studying baking in Paris and began making bento around 2016 during her seven-year stay in India. She returned to Japan in 2020 and lives in Fukuoka.

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