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Over
2000 years of history |
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Rice is a staple
part of the Japanese diet. Japanese and rice have a long inseparable
relationship. Japanese began to cultivate rice over 2000 years ago,
and now, rice is still popular and a very important food in Japan.
Many Shinto ceremonies and Japanese festivals involve rice growing
and rice products. Kome (raw rice), sake (rice wine) and mochi (rice
cakes) are typical offerings in shrines. Since rice has been regarded
as an important food, at the end of a meal, Japanese believe every
grain of rice served in a bowl or a dish should be eaten. That’s
easy when you cook rice with Zojirushi rice cooker because every
grain of rice is so delicious, you’ll never want to leave
any rice in your bowl! By the way, do you know what kind of rice
Japanese usually eat? The rice Japanese cook daily is medium-grain
called Japonica rice and this kind of rice is also grown in California.
It is a little bit stickier than long-grain rice called Indica rice.
In Japan, there are many cooking methods using rice. There are even
“rice burgers” sold in Japanese fast food shops, which
use crunchy rice instead of the bun! Let me introduce one of the
most popular dishes using rice. |
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Source
of energy, o-nigiri |
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From the word
of “nigiri”, what do you imagine? If you think of only
“sushi”, you are not a Japanese food connoisseur yet.
In Japanese, nigiri means grip. O-nigiri which is a polite term
for nigiri is a hand shaped round or triangular ball of rice and
one of the great finger foods in Japan. You might say that o-nigiri
is like a sandwich -- you eat them for lunch or a snack, and you
can make them hundreds of different ways. Inside the rice ball,
you can put fish, vegetables or whatever you like. You can wrap
them with nori (seaweed) or sprinkle the top with bonito flakes.
You can also buy o-nigiri at any convenience store in Japan or at
the Japanese supermarkets here. Especially at the convenience stores
in Japan, there are two or three shelves of them that get restocked
every couple of hours. There are a zillion varieties of o-nigiri
and each different convenience store chain has its own flavors.
For example, o-nigiri with diced beef steak, with salt kalbi (Korean
style marinated and grilled beef), with fried chicken, and more!
[to Part 2] |
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