Get to Know Hamamatsu

“Chikusen” is a long-established catering store that continues to preserve traditional flavors. Popular catered lunch boxes using ingredients from Enshu.

Founded in 1966, Chikusen is a catering store that uses local ingredients and carefully handcrafts each dish.

The catered bento boxes, made with an emphasis on locally produced food, come in around 100 varieties, including seasonal bentos, makunouchi bentos, Enshu specialty bentos, Lake Hamana eel bentos, and hors d’oeuvres.

Mr. Kimata Akihiko, the second generation owner, has been preserving the traditional flavor for 58 years since the restaurant was founded.

We have inherited the company motto from our predecessors, “Taste is the heart, we pursue true deliciousness,” and we deliver lunch boxes to many people, mainly using delicious ingredients from Enshu.

This month’s recommendation is “Chikusen,” a long-established catering restaurant.

Chikusen's Commitment

“Hamamatsu City is a land blessed with nature, with mountains, rivers, lakes, and the sea, and there are plenty of delicious seasonal ingredients,” says Mr. Akihiko Kimata, second-generation representative of Chikusen.

Hamamatsu City has a wide variety of delicious ingredients, including eel, seafood such as whitebait and pufferfish from the Enshu Nada Sea, and oysters from Lake Hamana, meats such as Mikkabi beef, Lake Hamana Mochi Pork, and Kosai Pork, and vegetables such as onions, komatsuna, and eel potatoes.

Mr. Kimata is particular about using local ingredients because he wants “by providing ‘locally produced, locally consumed’ takeout bento boxes that actively incorporate these delicious local ingredients, I want more people to know how wonderful Hamamatsu ingredients are.”

In addition to the ingredients, the restaurant is particular about the seasonings as well, and uses many products from local manufacturers.

Top left: Torii sauce Top right: Hama natto powder Center: Hama natto powder

The flavors of Chikusen are supported by delicious seasonings from local manufacturers, including Torii Sauce, which is full of the delicious flavor of vegetables; Hama-natto from Yamaya Soy Sauce, which is said to be the secret to Tokugawa Ieyasu’s longevity; salt koji from Kato Soy Sauce, made using the traditional koji lid method; and Tengu Sansho from Haruno Town, which allows you to experience the bounty of nature as it is.

Famous Hamamatsu Fried Chicken Bento 1,296 yen (Enjoy four different flavors: Torii Sauce, Hama Natto with Yamaya Soy Sauce, Shio Koji with Kato Soy Sauce, and Tengu Sansho from Haruno Town)

Popular catered lunch box rankings

Chikusen’s bento lunches have a wide range of options, and we would like to introduce three of their most popular options.

1st place: Makunouchi bento | Yaramaika gozen

Yaramaika gozen: 1,350 yen.

This bento box allows you to consume a balanced amount of fish, meat, and vegetables.

2nd place: Enshu specialty bento | Enshu Nada Shirasu bento

Enshu Nada Shirasu Bento 1,080 yen.

Freshly caught whitebait landed at Maisaka Port is served on top of rice in abundance. The accent is Lake Hamana nori seaweed. This bento allows you to enjoy the scent of the seashore.

3rd place: Hamamatsu Power Food | What happened to Ieyasu? Battle bento from Mikatagahara

What’s wrong!? Ieyasu’s Mikatagahara Battle Bento, 1,620 yen.

A bento box made with “Hamamatsu Power Foods,” seasonal ingredients from the Hamamatsu and Lake Hamana region that supported Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Sukiyaki made with Hamamatsu vegetables and Mikkabi beef vs. Koshu wine beef kalbi grilled meat.

Both meats are so delicious and satisfying that it is difficult to choose a winner.

The popular bento! Specially selected by Tono, the 2023 Hamamatsu Festival Horseback Warrior Procession Commemorative Bento

The “Lord’s Carefully Selected 2023 Hamamatsu Festival Horseback Warrior Procession Commemorative Bento” is a popular item supervised by Mr. Jun Matsumoto, the star of the 2023 Taiga drama “What Will Ieyasu Do?”, and is an adaptation of the bento presented to participants in the Hamamatsu Festival Horseback Warrior Procession!

2023 Hamamatsu Festival Horseback Warrior Procession Commemorative Bento: 2,376 yen.

The main dishes feature Hamamatsu’s representative power foods: eel, whitebait, and Mikkabi beef.

This bento box allows you to experience the wonderfulness of local ingredients.

Bringing the taste of Chikusen to the whole country ☆ Mail-order gourmet "Shizuoka Festival Bento"

The “Shizuoka Festival Bento”, introduced in 2019, is a series of frozen bentos made with delicious ingredients from Shizuoka Prefecture.

be heated in the microwave without losing quality and you can enjoy the same freshly made taste.

Just heat it in a 600W microwave for 3.5 minutes and you’ll have a freshly made, delicious bento on your table!

This bowl of rice is made with an abundance of delicious Shizuoka ingredients, such as oysters and eel from Lake Hamana, conger eel and whitebait from the Enshu Nada Sea, Mikkabi beef, and golden-eyed snapper, making it the perfect gift or a treat for yourself!

Starting in autumn, a pork bowl made with Kosai pork, a specialty of Kosai City, will be added to the menu.

↓You can order gourmet food such as “Shizuoka Festival Bento” here

https://www.chikusen-shop.com/

Helping students realize their dreams ☆ Producing eel potato sweets

In addition to catered lunches, Chikusen is also focusing on developing a variety of products that support the local community.

One of them is this “Unagiimo Yokan”!

“Unagiimo Yokan” is a sweet developed in collaboration between Tokoha University’s Department of Health Production and the Unagiimo Cooperative, which grows Hamamatsu brand sweet potatoes.

“Unagiimo” is a Hamamatsu brand of sweet potato grown with fertilizer made from powdered residue such as bones and heads that are left over from eel processing.

The zinc and manganese contained in “eel residue” are said to have the effect of giving sweet potatoes a deep sweetness.

Chikusen uses this “Unagiimo” to create a yokan (jelly bean paste) based on a recipe devised by a student from Tokoha University.

“We hope that releasing the product we have invented into the world will help the students gain life experience and empower them for their future,” said President Mr. Kimata.

“Unagiimo Yokan” is now on sale at the Farmers Market East store.

“We hope that releasing the product we have invented into the world will help the students gain life experience and empower them for their future,” said President Mr. Kimata.

“Unagiimo Yokan” is now on sale at the Farmers Market East store.

A message from President Mr. Kimata to our readers

We have been incorporating more local ingredients to provide healthy and delicious catered lunch boxes.

We strive to support the health of local communities by providing catered lunch boxes that are not only delicious but also nutritionally balanced.

Chikusen aims to be a bento shop beloved by the local community, and will continue to work hard to create healthy and delicious bento boxes that actively incorporate Hamamatsu power foods.

What did you think? This month’s recommendation is the long-established catering restaurant “Chikusen.”

Reservations for the “2025 edition of Osechi cuisine” will also begin on October 1, 2024.

Be sure to check out the official website!

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https://www.chikusen.jp/

Chikusen Co., Ltd.

■Hamakita store

4257 Uchino, Hamana-ku, Hamamatsu-shi, Shizuoka

TEL: 053(586)5123

FAX: 053(586)6046

■Hamamatsu sales office

1-25-13 Johoku, Chuo-ku, Hamamatsu-shi, Shizuoka