Shoyu Mame

Shoyu mame is broad beans roasted dry and then dropped, still hot, into a marinade of soy sauce, sugar and chilli, and left overnight. Because the beans are roasted rather than boiled they keep a dry structure and collapse in the mouth rather than going soft, which is what separates them from an ordinary simmered bean.

Broad beans were the standard second crop after rice in Sanuki, so there were always plenty. The origin story local people tell is that beans being roasted to give to pilgrims on the Shikoku circuit rolled into a nearby soy sauce jar, and were found later to be better for it. It has been eaten here since the Edo period, it appears on every set meal in the prefecture, and it is sold vacuum-packed in supermarkets and at the airport.