Chagayu: Nara's Traditional Tea-Simmered Rice Porridge

Chagayu is rice porridge simmered in roasted green tea instead of plain water, producing a pale, faintly bitter, aromatic dish rather than the neutral flavor of typical rice porridge. It's connected to both Nara's Buddhist temple cuisine, where simple, frugal meals were the norm, and to everyday Edo-period home cooking in the region, where stretching rice with tea and water helped make modest supplies go further.

Chagayu is generally served as a simple breakfast or light meal, paired with pickles and modest side dishes rather than presented as a showcase dish. Some traditional restaurants and inns in the Nara area still serve it, though availability isn't universal, so it's worth checking locally rather than assuming it's on every menu. It's a good example of Nara's plainer, less performative food culture compared to Kyoto's more elaborate presentation.