Savoring Gifts from Lakeside

Hinona is a type of radish and a traditional vegetable of Shiga. It is moderately pungent and bitter. The top part is reddish purple and the bottom part is white, and the stems and leaf veins are also a bright reddish purple color. As hinona becomes light pink when pickled in sweet vinegar, it has been cherished by local residents as Sakura pickle.

It is a free-range chicken that is Shiga’s unique local product, created by Shiga Prefectural Animal Farming Technology Center by crossing three purebred chickens. Spending about three times as long time as usual chicken, Omi Shamo is grown in a relaxed atmosphere, in Omi’s nature with abundant greenery and water. Its meat is moderately elastic, enjoyably crispy, tasty, rich and flavorful.

Lake Biwa offers all kinds of fish, depending on each season. The most characteristic eight types of fish are called Biwako Hacchin (meaning: eight rare fishes of Lake Biwa). Officially, they are: Biwa trout, Nigoro crucian carp, willow gudgeon, isaza, Japanese fluvial sculpin, small sweetfish, lake prawn and three-lips.

※Photo showing lake prawns and willow gudgeon.

Fu is baked wheat-gluten, and most of it sold in Shiga is labelled “Choji-fu”.
While most baked wheat glutens are round, Choji-fu is angulated. It is said to have originated from Japan’s Sengoku period (1467–1603) when nutritious baked gluten was a prized item. Apparently, round baked glutens were not fit for on-the-go consumption, so it was reshaped, replicating the townscape of Omi Hachiman.

The red konjac has long been a traditional food around Omi Hachiman, Shiga. There are several stories as to why it is red. Some say Nobunaga Oda, considered one of Japan’s three unifiers, dyed it red, and some say Omi’s merchants colored it red to differentiate it from other products when they went on the road selling their products. The red comes from a food additive called ferric oxide. Besides being red, the konjac also has ample nutrients including dietary fiber and calcium.

This is a variety of tea that has been passed down from generation to generation for over 600 years since the Muromachi period (1336–1573), in the Okugenji district from which water flows into Lake Biwa. Most of the tea plants are original varieties and are grown without any insecticides or chemical fertilizers. The hard leaves that mature over the harsh winter are harvested in early spring, steamed in a large wooden tub, dried and aged for six months. The bancha tea created with this traditional tub-steaming technique has a refined bitterness and a gentle taste.

Omi beef is a black-coated Japanese wagyu beef, raised amid Shiga’s nature. It has about 400 years of history and is said to be the most historical wagyu beef in Japan. It characteristically has fine marbled fat that tastes sweet and melts in one’s mouth, a rich aroma and tender texture.