![]() Fortunately, as one of my guides in Toyooka points out, modern pesticides are not quite as lethal as those in the past but the potential to harm the birds still exists.Īfter having just arrived in Toyooka, it's already time to spot the surely-not-succulent bird I naively and momentarily imagined I may have to eat when the concept of stork rice was first mentioned to me. The result? While many storks have been saved, the species remains under threat. Yet some farmers in Hyogo resist growing their crops organically. Japanese revere this universal staple, whether it's organic or not, with a near religious fervour and they're willing to pay a premium for it. The organic stork rice grown in Hyogo, a prefecture on the main island of Honshu abutting the Sea of Japan of which Toyooka is part, has become popular among Japanese consumers, and is exported to markets such as the US and Singapore. Because rice cultivated with the assistance of chemicals and pesticides can poison and even kill the storks that eat the crop, local authorities have encouraged and incentivised local rice-farmers to adopt organic farming methods. Importantly, a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the rice are donated to assist the stork conservation effort. In reality it's organic rice produced with a noble purpose of underwriting a clever and determined conservation program which rescued the magnificent oriental white stork from extinction in the wild in the 1970s. Reassuringly, stork rice contains no traces of actual stork meat. But, as it eventuates, like nearly everything in this wonderfully enigmatic land, there's much more to it. It's a roughly 2½-hour train ride north-west of Kyoto where the prospect of eating something called "stork rice" is a somehow less appetising prospect.Ĭhicken rice is one thing while stork rice is surely something else entirely. But, here I am elsewhere in Asia, far removed from that tropical island state, in a place called Toyooka, Japan. One my favourite dishes in all of my travels around Asia is Singapore's classic chicken rice, a simple and simply beautiful dish of succulent steamed white meat sliced into bite-size pieces and served on fragrant rice with a side bowl of light soy sauce.
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