Bringing Local Flavor to the Nation
Tochuken Inc.
Many of the bentos we offer make good use of ingredients that have a local connection. Because they are ekiben, we want to make it easy for customers visiting from various regions to enjoy the delicious foods of the area. All of our products are created with this in mind. The “Tai meshi,” or “Sea bream rice” with sweetly seasoned sea bream on top of rice, is a signature item that has been handed down from generation to generation since the Meiji era and has been well received by people of all ages.
Suruga Bay is home to a wide variety of fish landings, so we offer many fish-based bentos. And one of the essential ingredients in this area is wasabi. We also offer an unusual ekiben called “Minato Aji Sushi” (room temperature type), which uses horse mackerel, a specialty of Numazu, and comes with fresh wasabi from Izu Amagi and a grater, allowing you to grate the wasabi to your own liking.
In recent years, it's not just seafood that's popular, but also bento made with "Ashitaka Beef," a Shizuoka brand of beef raised near Mount Ashitaka at the foot of Mount Fuji. The "Fugaku Ashitaka Beef Sukiyaki Bento" has been redesigned, changing its container and packaging originally used for train station bento, and is now also available as a frozen meal.
Currently, we offer four types of frozen ekiben: “Minato Aji Sushi,” “Fugaku Ashitaka Beef Bento,” “Gobento (Makunouchi Bento),” and “Tai-meshi”. Now, with an idea from Shingi Corporation, we have decided to offer taimeshi (rice with sea bream) and sakuraebi onigiri (rice ball with sakura shrimp). It would be interesting to expand the lineup to include not only bento but also onigiri, which is an easy way to enjoy local flavors. In the future, I would like to utilize our e-commerce site to deliver local flavors to the rest of the country.