Okayama

A specialty wild vegetables dish of the rice planting season

Kusagina Rice

Kusagina is the dried young buds of kusagi, a kind of plant that grows wildly in the mountains and fields. Its smell is so strong that you can tell there is a kusagi just by walking along the road. The best way of eating kusagi is to put it on top of rice. Soak kusagi in water, cut into small pieces, fry with plenty of oil, season with fried chicken, burdock, carrots and shiitake mushroom, put on rice and pour chicken stock soup and garnish with spring onion.