Ebimeshi: Shrimp Rice with a Dark Side

Behind the colour

What arrived was an almost-black mound of rice on a white plate, glossy with sauce beneath yellow strips of egg and a little green garnish. “Shrimp rice” was accurate, if not especially forthcoming.

The sauce was spicy and slightly tangy, running through the rice and giving it its character as well as its colour. The shrimp were plump and springy, with a satisfying bite of their own.

They had earned their place in the name. The sauce might reasonably have asked for equal billing.

The restaurant recommends adding coleslaw, sold separately. I ordered a bowl and was glad I did.

From Shibuya to Okayama

Indeira opened in 1955 as a tiny curry shop, its front about two metres wide, on a corner by the crossing in front of Shibuya Station. In its early days, by the restaurant’s own account, the owner wanted something that was neither dry curry nor fried rice: something like a sauce-fried rice with shrimp in it, which everyone would like.

The distinction was evidently clear at the time. Indeira’s menu now lists a dry curry as well.

Ebimeshi is also a speciality of Okayama, in western Japan, and that story began at Indeira too. A man from Okayama trained there in the 1960s. In 1966, back home, he opened a curry and coffee shop in Okayama City. He called it Indeira as well, and put ebimeshi on the menu at ¥120 a plate.