Rice with cold water - A unique summer cooling specialty in Japan

Yamagata was originally a prefecture located in the southern Tohoku region (Japan). Yamagata has long been famous for its hot springs, cherry blossoms, and natural scenery.

In particular, Yamagata has a special dish that sounds very strange and when seen, everyone is equally surprised. That is the cold water rice dish, called Mizukakegohan (水かけご飯).

Rice with cold water is a dish known by many people through the famous anime Kumamiko (Love Bear). In the film, the female protagonist Machi has performed each stage of this cold water rice dish with surprisingly sparkling and beautiful images. Thanks to this cartoon, many people know and are more curious about the strange rice dish of the land of cherry blossoms.

Regarding the origin of the cold water rice dish, there is an opinion that, in the past, this Yamagata region was still very poor and hungry, there was not much food to eat, so people used cold water to cook rice for them. easier to swallow and fuller faster.

However, there is still an interesting and more convincing theory as to why there is cold water rice in this region. According to people, in the summer, Yamagata is a very hot area in Japan.

Therefore, the rice after cooking will not be kept for a long time or the leftover cooked rice from the night before will start to become viscous and show signs of rancidity. Therefore, in order not to waste rice, people have come up with the idea of ​​using cold water to wash rice to remove that slimy part. Then use cold water to cover the rice to make the rice cool and easier to eat.

In addition, according to many others, because Yamagata has hot weather in the summer, using cold water over rice is also an effective cooling method. Over time, cold water rice has become a specialty and tradition of the Yamagata region, and even today it has spread to several other regions in the Tohoku region.

Although called cold water rice, this dish is not eaten as many people mistakenly think, but also served with some other foods to increase the appetite.

The most popular accompanying foods are pickled radishes and pickles. Biting a piece of sour, salty and salty pickle and eating with a spoonful of cool rice, just imagining it makes you feel refreshed. That's why some people think that this cold water rice dish is the "survival" method of the people of Yamagata through the sweltering summer.

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