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I recently attended a wedding ceremony at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo. The bride, Miki, was my former assistant. Miki, her mother Risa, and I traveled to Paris together seven or eight times. On one occasion, I had recently given birth, so they were a big help to me. While Risa was babysitting, Miki and I would join cooking classes with three-star chefs, be introduced to homemade desserts in Parisian kitchens and give lessons on Japanese snacks to French foodies.

How inspiring it must have been for a girl in junior high school! This experience ended up having a big impact on her life. She went on to major in gastronomic management at college and then got a job at a honey company in Chiba Prefecture. Her passion is still for food, and she has launched new desserts using honey and given Japanese cooking workshops for travelers from overseas.

Miki invited me to give a toast at her wedding party. Instead of “kanpai,” I thought “felicitations” (congratulations in French) would be perfect because Paris is what connected us. I stood in front of the microphone with a champagne glass in my hand and said to the guests, “Please repeat after me, ‘Felicitations’!”

At the end of the party, Miki read a letter to her parents. She talked about how she had made bento for her father, grandfather, brother and herself every day during junior high and high school. Her grandfather liked Japanese meat and potato stew, and he would tell her in secret that “It’s not the same as grandma’s, but I like what you make better.”

Her father and grandfather each put 100 yen in her rabbit piggy bank when they brought home an empty lunch box.
Miki now goes to work early in the morning, so she often just cooks and takes simple mixed rice balls. The mixed rice ball recipe introduced here, called “Bicycle Rice,” is based on a local dish from Unzen, Nagasaki Prefecture.

Why bicycles? It is named after a bicycle race held in 1927 that went around Shimabara Peninsula in Nagasaki Prefecture, and it is said that these rice balls were given to spectators. The simple seasoning gives you energy.

Ingredients for 2 servings

2 cups (360 ml) rice / 360 ml water / 15 grams dried sardines / 2 Tbsp soy sauce / 1 Tbsp sesame oil / 1 carrot / 1 burdock root

Directions

1. Wash the rice and soak it for about 20 minutes.

2. Slice the carrots into thin strips. Wash the burdock well, then use the back of a knife to scrape off the skin and cut it into strips.

3. Put all the ingredients into a rice cooker and cook.

4. Put a desired portion on a sheet of plastic wrap and lightly shape it into a rice ball by rotating it 5 or 6 times with your hands.

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This article originally appeared in the Dec. 1, 2024, 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.