The first thing to say is that the kind of plum that Japanese people eat under rice is different from the sweet and sour plum and preserves that are used as snacks, and the plum is specially pickled, sour and salty. Yes, you read that right, it is a sour and salty taste, and some people may feel difficult to accept when they first eat it, so sour that people doubt life.
However, in Japanese food culture, it is believed that such dried plums and rice are very compatible, so there is a way to eat dried plums with rice mentioned in the opening chapter, and it is also very common to put a plum on rice in Japanese bento. The main reasons are as follows.
First of all, eating dried plums is good for good health. In traditional Japanese food culture, it is believed that plums can remove the "three poisons", that is, poison in food, poison in water and poison in blood. Eating salted dried plums is very good for the stomach and intestines, can kill insects and pain, and promote gastrointestinal peristalsis, which can effectively help the human body digestion. In addition, plums also have the effect of relieving fatigue, which is a very good decompression food for Japanese people who have a very fast pace of life and are very stressed.
Second, in the past era of material scarcity in Japan, there were not many side foods that the poor could eat, so the cheap, simple and easy to preserve prunes became a treasure, and when eating only one or two pieces, they could eat a bowl of rice, and they did not feel too monotonous to eat, so they were very popular. It can be said that eating dried plums is a traditional culture that has been circulating in Japan since ancient times.
Then when it comes to Japanese plums, the most famous one is the "South High Plum" produced in Wakayama Prefecture, which is the largest producer of plums in Japan.
The birthplace of Minami-Komei is minami-cho in Hidaka-gun, Wakayama Prefecture, which is a gentle hilly area that is affected by Kuroshio all year round, and the climate is very warm. Due to the long sunshine time, coupled with the local climate and water and soil are very suitable for plum tree cultivation, so since ancient times, Minami Town has planted a large number of plum trees.
In 1902, In order to turn the mulberry field into a plum field, Takada Sadanan, a farmer in Minami-cho, purchased excellent "Uchiaka plum" saplings from nearby farmers and began planting trees. Then, he found that one of the plum trees had a very large number of fruits, and the fruit was large and red, so he used this tree as the mother tree for breeding and breeding, and named it "Takada Plum". This plum is the foundation of the South Caucus variety.
(Saline salted in Nangao)
In the future, if you have the opportunity to come to Japan, be sure to taste this sour and salty dried plum, which may be a little unaccustomed to eating at first, but the impact of this taste bud will definitely make you unforgettable.