Om.. nomnom.. rice?

No, it's Omurice!
According to "Japanese women don't get old or fat" by Naomi Moriyama, the Japanese LOVE eggs, and hopefully so will you after you taste this dish.
Omurice is basically a type of omelette that conceals a mound of fried rice. It can be either eaten with ketchup, or my favourite, wasabi paste. Some even make their own sauce to go on top.
Omurice is something of a national favourite in Japan. I've read in many blogs that it is something people connect to their childhood. Originally this delicious dish was a restaurant dish for children, and it falls into the genre of Western influenced Japanese dishes. Nowadays, Omurice is a part of Japanese home cooking.
I can't claim a very authentic connection to Omurice, and have never tasted one that wasn't made by me myself.

The first time I saw Omurice, was in an anime called Aria the Natural. I admit to being a hopeless anime and manga fan, (not to the stage of being an obsessive fan like some people I know), and anime and manga tend to be the places where I get my cravings for Japanese food.
I looked up the recipe for Omurice on the internet, and made it for myself one afternoon, as a vegetarian version. It was so gorgeous! The rice was nice and juicy from the tomatoes I used, and soaked in wonderful dark soy sauce. And the eggs on top were cooked just right, so that the omelette was thick, but still moist and some of the yolk still a bit runny. It was bliss.

After I first encountered Omurice and made it for the first time, I have been noticing it in nearly every manga I read or anime I watch. Along with several other dishes which I either have tried or want to try. If you think you love food, you just need to watch a couple of episodes of anime, to know that the Japanese love it more.

Every time I go to London, I nearly clean out the Japanese corner store near my sisters house. So if anyone lives near Ealing Common, I'd suggest you stock up before May, because that's when I'll be decending upon it again. In London I frequent a restaurant chain by the name of Wagamama (selfish in Japanese), and while I love their foods, I must insist it upon you all, that restaurant food differs so much from Japanese home cooking. If you're interested in trying it, I warmly suggest "Japanese women don't get old or fat". It's a great book!

The original recipe for Omurice contains chicken, but as I am a vegetarian, I tweaked up the recipe to accommodate my personal tastes. When making the Omurice, remember one rule: The Japanese want an Omurice to be pristine. In other words, if you tear up the omelette by accident, try to cover it up somehow. There are two ways to make Omurice, the first and most popular one, is to put the fried rice on a plate and the omelette on top, so that it covers all the rice. This is the option where you can use lots of fried rice. The other option is to fold the rice inside the omelette, but since all the rice needs to be covered, you have to use less rice so that it won't come out of the omelette. Another great feature about Omurice is, that you can make it from leftover rice!

Vegetarian Omurice. (Serves 2 people)
1 cup Boiled rice. (Traditionally white rice, I use whole grain).
1/2 yellow Onion, finely chopped.
2 large Mushrooms, sliced.
2 Tomatoes, cut into cubes.
1/4 cup of Broccoli, shredded into small buds.
2 cloves of Garlic, minced.
1/4tsp of Red Chilli, finely chopped.
Soy sauce for seasoning.
A handful of shredded Basil leaves.
Some oil for cooking
4 Eggs




If you boil the rice, you can use the time it cooks to prepare the other ingredients.
1. Chop up the onion, chilli and tomatoes, and slice the mushrooms. Shred the broccoli and the basil leaves. Use a garlic presser to mince the garlic cloves.
2. Once you have the boiled rice, heat up a pan and pour in a little oil. Add the rice, and the onions and stir-fry until the onions have softened slightly. Add in the mushrooms and stir until the mushrooms have softened. Add in the tomatoes and stir for a few seconds. Then add the broccoli, chilli, garlic and soy sauce and stir-fry for about a half a minute. Divide the fried rice on two plates, and add the shredded basil on top.
3. Heat up the pan again, and drizzle in a little oil. Break the eggs into two separate glasses, two into each glass, and break the texture with a fork. Pour the contents of one glass into the pan and wait for it to get firm enough to remove from the pan without breaking it, but so that it is still slightly runny on top. Flip the omelette on top of the mound of rice, the fried side up. Repeat to make another omelette for the second plate.

Enjoy!