Rice, A Japanese Staple
Central to the Japanese cuisine is rice. Rice is called gohan once it is cooked. Gohan also means a meal which just underscores the importance of rice to the Japanese. Rice is served for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The word for breakfast is asagohan which means “morning rice”. Lunch is hirugohan, and dinner is bangohan.
One of the most convenient rice snack I’ve ever had is the Onigiri. It is a rice ball snack wrapped in nori (seaweed). It is traditionally filled with pickled ume fruit (umeboshi), salted salmon (sake), katsuobushi or any other salty or sour ingredient. Onigiri are in convenience stores all over Japan.
Uncooked rice is kome or o-kome. Rice seasoned with vinegar for sushi is called, shari.
Published 26 November 07 · Up Next: Umami = Delicious · Previously: The Soybean
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