Rice cooked with chestnuts

It is autumn in Japan. In the evening, crickets chirp incessantly in the green. There are a lot of nuts of trees in the woods and the forests in the autmun. The chestnut is one of the nuts of trees which Japanese people like to eat in the autumn. Naturally we eat chestnuts without cooking. When we eat chestnuts cooked into rice, we feel that it is autumn. Rice cooked with chestnuts is called “Kuri-gohan” in Japanese. If you cooked other ingredients into rice, it was called “Takikomi-gohan” in Japanese. It includes not only chestnuts but also carrots, mushroom, matsutake mushroom and others.

It is autumn now and I hear the crickets play stringed instruments to smell the rice cooked with the fresh chestnuts.