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TCHNIQUS

Hello, Tamago Kake Gohan, Your Time Has Come

J. KENJI LÓPEZ-ALT

Stop looking at the picture above. Instead, look at this one:

This is a bowl of rice. It is delicious, but it is boring. It is boring in the way that monster-truck shows and
movies about aliens aren't. It's so boring that the term "white rice" is used to describe other things that
are as boring as it. I could go on about how boring it is, but I'm afraid that this paragraph would then
become a little too white rice. You get the picture.

Stop having a boring bowl of rice; stop having a boring life.

Other than maybe pouring milk over cereal, tamago gohan (literally "egg rice")—rice mixed with a raw
egg—was the very first recipe I learned, and it's Japanese comfort food at its simplest. When I was
growing up in New York, my Japanese grandparents lived in the apartment one floor below us. On
weekends, my mom would occasionally shoo us off to spend the night downstairs. My sisters and I
would sleep on a thick futon rolled out on the floor, drinking barley tea and Calpis (https://en.wikipedia.org
/wiki/Calpis). In the morning, we'd head into my grandmother's sitting room for more tea and tamago
gohan.

We'd each get a bowl of hot rice (or, in my older sister's case, room-temperature rice) and an egg to
break into it. Then we'd season it with a little bit of soy sauce, a pinch of salt, and a shake of
Aji-no-moto, a Japanese brand of pure powdered MSG. (Like most Japanese people, I had no
hang-ups about eating MSG then, and still don't now.) We'd whip up the rice with a pair of chopsticks,
the egg turning pale yellow and foamy, holding the rice in a light, frothy suspension somewhere
between a custard and a meringue. The Japanese have a thing for this kind of slippery, tender texture.
If you've ever had natto, you know what tamago gohan should be like. If we were feeling extra bold,
we'd top it up with a bit of shredded dried nori or a shake of furikake, the mixed seasoning that's
typically eaten on plain rice but works particularly well here.

It's been a staple meal for me my entire life (and it mildly grossed out my wife the first time she saw me
eat it). It's something hearty and delicious to throw together in minutes for breakfast or a late-night
snack—I'll microwave leftover rice to get it hot again for tamago gohan. It's such a simple, common
food for me that it wasn't until I posted a picture of it on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com
/p/BDrKyWDIyHK/?taken-by=kenjilopezalt) (where it quickly became my most liked post) that I realized that
tamago gohan is now a thing. Going by its alternate names of tamago kake gohan, tamago bukkake
meshi (both mean "egg-covered rice"), or—as the kids are calling it these days—"TKG," it's been
primped and primed and is ready for the spotlight. I would frankly not be surprised if food trucks selling
eggy rice already exist in Austin, or if fancy chefs in Brooklyn are serving bowls of seasoned rice topped
with sous vide eggs.

Tamago gohan, your time has come.

The good news is, you don't really need to go anywhere to get it. It's a two-minute recipe (three, tops, if
you're real slow), and you probably already have most of the ingredients you need to make it. Start with
 a bowl of rice—about a cup of cooked rice per egg is right. So long as it's not stale, it can be cold,
lukewarm, hot, or anywhere in between. If you've got leftover rice in the fridge, put some in a bowl,
cover it with a saucer, and microwave it for a minute, and it'll be good to go.

Next, you need an egg. You do want to use a good, clean egg and break it cleanly, as you're going to be
eating it raw. If you are squeamish about such things, buy pasteurized eggs (or pasteurize them
yourself, using a sous vide circulator at 135°F for two hours), or gently coddle your eggs in simmering
water for a couple of minutes before adding them. Coddled eggs won't have quite the same lightness
after they're added to the rice, but you'll get the general effect.

Some people like to be fussy, perhaps separating the egg and mixing the white into the rice first before
folding in the yolk. Others will whip together the soy sauce and the egg before stirring it into the rice.
I've tried all these techniques, and honestly, I can find absolutely no reason to use them when the
easiest method works just as well: Dump the egg into the rice, season it, and stir. Making a little well in
the rice helps a bit, and it looks cute and all, but it's also not necessary by any means.

My grandmother always used extremely simple seasonings. A drizzle of soy sauce, a little pinch of salt,
a little pinch of MSG, and some finely torn or shredded nori. Some people like to add a dash of dashi
(http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2009/10/how-to-make-dashi-asian-miso-soup-bonito-flakes-kelp-kombu.html)
(or, more frequently, some granules of Hondashi), which can give it an appealingly savory and smoky
flavor. Some people will drizzle in mirin for sweetness. I generally don't bother, although, when I've got
some on hand, I've been known to use bottled, concentrated soba noodle tsuyu, which contains all of
those ingredients in a conveniently premixed form.

The real trick is in the beating. You need to beat thoroughly, and you need to beat vigorously. It'll take a
little effort to get all the clumps out of the rice, but you want to continue beating even after that's
happened. Just like creaming butter and sugar for a cookie dough (http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/12
/cookie-science-creaming-butter-sugar.html), as you beat the rice and egg mixture, it will incorporate more
and more air. Meanwhile, egg proteins will also stretch and tangle, giving the dish more cohesion. By
the time you're done, the mixture should flow and settle very, very slowly in the bowl—just slightly
thicker than an Italian-style risotto, but far lighter.

It's ready to eat as is, but if you want to get extra fancy with it, do what I like to do:

First, top it with furikake. Then...

...go ahead and add an extra egg yolk. Go on, just do it. Your grandmother isn't here to stop you right
now.

RCIPS / RAKFAST AND RUNCH / PASTA

Tamago Kake Gohan (Japanese-Style Rice With Egg) Recipe

J. KENJI LÓPEZ-ALT

Tamago gohan (literally "egg rice")—rice mixed with a raw egg—is Japanese comfort food at its simplest. Start
with a bowl of hot rice, then break an egg into it. Season it with a little bit of soy sauce, a pinch of salt, and a shake
of Aji-no-moto, a Japanese brand of pure powdered MSG. (Like most Japanese people, I have no hang-ups
about eating MSG.) Whip it up with a pair of chopsticks until the egg turns pale yellow and foamy and holds the
rice in a light, frothy suspension, somewhere between a custard and a meringue.

It's one of my favorite recipes of all time, and something that can be made in minutes.

WHY IT WORKS
• The hot rice helps thicken the egg slightly, giving the whole dish a lighter, fluffier texture.

• Beating the eggs and rice thoroughly with chopsticks introduces air into the egg whites, making them fluffier.

• Soy sauce, MSG, and furikake are all umami-rich ingredients that give the dish a nice savory flavor.

RAD TH WHOL STORY

YIELD: Serves 1 ACTIVE TIME: 3 minutes TOTAL TIME: 3 minutes RATED:

INGRDINTS DIRCTIONS
1 cup cooked hot white rice 1. Place rice in a bowl and make a shallow indentation in the center.
(about 12 ounces cooked rice;
Break the whole egg into the center. Season with 1/2 teaspoon
340g)
soy sauce, a pinch of salt, a pinch of MSG, 1/2 teaspoon mirin (if
1 egg (plus 1 optional egg yolk) using), and a pinch of Hondashi (if using). Stir vigorously with
Soy sauce chopsticks to incorporate egg; it should become pale yellow,
frothy, and fluffy in texture. Taste and adjust seasonings as
Kosher salt
necessary. Sprinkle with furikake and nori (if using), make a small
MSG powder, such as indentation in the top, and add the other egg yolk (if using).
Aji-no-moto or Accent Serve immediately.
(optional)

Mirin (optional)

Hondashi (optional; see note

above)

Furikake (optional; see note

above)

Thinly sliced or torn nori

(optional)

NOTS
Hondashi is powdered dashi that can be found in any Japanese market and most well-stocked supermarkets.
Furikake is a seasoning mixture typically made with seaweed, dried sweetened bonito, and sesame seeds, among
other ingredients. It can be found in any Japanese market.