Tamago kake gohan

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Tamago kake gohan (left), Tsukemono and Miso soup

Tamago kake gohan (卵かけご飯, "egg sauce over rice") is a popular Japanese breakfast food consisting of boiled rice topped or mixed with raw egg and—optionally—soy sauce.

Contents

1 Background
2 Method of preparation

2.1 Preparation of ingredients
2.2 Three examples of preparation methods

3 Tamago kake gohan's place in Japanese Food Culture
4 Nutrition facts
5 Trivia
6 See also

Background

Tamago kake gohan is a dish in which a raw egg is put on top of or mixed with rice, or a recipe for such a dish. Beaten eggs are sometimes used, as are non-beaten. Sometimes only the yolk of the egg is used. The dish is also known in Japan as "tamago bukkake gohan" (bukkake means "splashed" or "dashed"), "tamago bukkake meshi" (meshi is slang for rice), "tamago gohan", or simply "tamago kake". Tamago (egg) may be written 玉子, as an alternative to the single character 卵.

Taking chicken eggs in their raw state and eating them mixed them with the staple food of rice is a particularity of Japanese food culture.

Method of preparation

There are a variety of ways of preparing tamago kake gohan, according to personal taste.

Preparation of ingredients

Take a raw (chicken) egg and recently cooked or re-heated rice (although some people, who dislike the fact that the protein in the egg changes due to the temperature of the rice, use rice which has been kept in the rice cooker momentarily after cooking).

Three examples of preparation methods

Prepare the rice in a rice bowl, then make a well in the top of the rice using some chopsticks. Break the egg into the well and scramble everything together.

Beat the egg in a separate container, then proceed as above, making a well in the surface of the rice. This method is convenient for people who are clumsy with breaking eggs. For those people who like whisks, it's easier to put the whisk aside.

Beat the egg beforehand in the rice bowl, then prepare the rice.

The quantity of rice can be changed depending on how hungry people are. If the preparation involves making a well, there is a possibility of overflowing if the well is too small, so particular care should be taken when beating the egg. Conversely, if the well is too large, the balance will be upset between the egg and too small a quantity of rice.

Image:Egg-gohan1.jpg|1. Put a fresh egg into the Kobachi (小鉢, small bowl). Image:Egg-usu1.jpg|

2. Pour a desired amount of soy sauce to taste into the Kobachi. Image:Egg-usu2.jpg|

3. Mix the egg and soy sauce together, if the soy sauce makes the mixture somewhat black it is no problem. Image:Egg-gohan4.jpg|4. Dig a hollow in the center of the cooked rice in the Chawan (茶碗, a rice bowl) using chopsticks. Image:Egg-gohan5.jpg|5. Pour the egg/soy sauce mixture into the hollow. Image:Egg-gohan6.jpg|6. Stir the mixture into the rice. The rice veritably glistens with golden color. Enjoy!

Tamago kake gohan's place in Japanese Food Culture

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In Japan, cooking using raw food is generally considered "cuisine," but it is viewed that simply putting a raw egg on top of cooked rice does not constitute "cuisine" or "cooking." As another example, rice topped with natto, or fermented soybeans, cannot at all be thought of as qualitatively different; people who would consider nattou-topped rice "cooking" are undoubtedly few. On the other hand, one example of raw food being considered "cuisine" is sashimi, which has been perfected in Japanese cooking and is known the world over. After all, noted researcher Harumi Kurihara (栗原はるみ Kurihara Harumi), introduces tamago kake gohan in her book intended for Western audiences, "Japanese Cooking," published in 2004. Due to cooking being conducted in this simple way and also in complicated ways, the boundary lines of defining what is "cooking" and what is not "cooking" are indefinite.

Within Japan, being known as the single most quickly and simply eaten meal (especially at breakfast) and the food that most Japanese have tasted at least once, the dish's peculiar smell separates those who enjoy its taste and those who do not. For the average Japanese, the very necessary breakfast meal between the time one wakes up in the morning and the time one leaves for work or school is light and simple; for lunch, a meal such as a handmade bento lunch box that has been assembled with nutrition in mind (otherwise, a bentou purchased at a bentou shop, fast food, or food from a convenience store) - lunch is a meal almost always consumed with friends, coworkers, or clients. The evening meal is frequently eaten as a family, with whom one discusses the daily events; compared with lunch and breakfast, dinner is a much larger meal.

The reason that tamago kake gohan is eaten primarily at breakfast is that it can be finished quickly. This is because adding the raw egg to the rice makes the rice less sticky. Each grain of rice is thereby detached from others, which allows the rice to be washed down fluidly. With this, if one had drunk too much the previous evening and lost one's appetite the following day, for example, the speed and ease with which one can eat a substantial amount of tamago kake gohan is advantageous.

Also, the dish's simplicity, affordability, and nutritious value make it a meal that can be enjoyed and eaten by people looking for a job, by students, and by those living alone, to name a few. The popularity of the dish has waned somewhat due to the rise of convenience stores and the food service industry, but it is still consumed widely throughout Japan.

Nutrition facts

Below are the nutrition values of one 60g M-sized egg, and one 110g rice ball, measured according to the average size of the rice balls of Japanese junior high and high school students. "Per day" assumes 3 tamago kake gohan meals eaten every day.

Values	Calories [kcal]	Protein [g]	Fat [g]	Carbohydrates [g]	Calcium [mg]	Iron [mg]	Vitamin A [IU]	Vitamin B1 [mg]	Vitamin B2 [mg]	Vitamin C [mg]	Vitamin D [IU]	Niacin [mg]
60g egg	90.6	7.38	6.18	0.18	30.6	1.08	270	0.036	0.258	0	72	0.06
110ｇ rice	391.6	6.71	0.99	84.81	5.5	8.8	0	0.088	0.022	0	0	3.19
Per meal	482.2 24%	14.09 22%	7.17	84.99	36.1 6%	9.88 90%	270 15%	0.124 16%	0.28 25%	0 0%	72 48%	3.25 23%
Per day	1446.6 72%	42.27 65%	21.51	254.97	108.3 18%	29.64 269%	810 45%	0.372 47%	0.84 76%	0 0%	216 144%	9.75 70%
Japanese daily nutritional guidelines	2000	65	align=left
align=left
600	11	1800	0.8	1.1	60	150	14

As a comparison, here is the amount of various nutrients eaten on average in world countries. [Nutrition Information Database]

Country (Year tested) Age group	Calories [kcal]	Protein [g]	Fat [g]	Calcium [mg]	Iron [mg]	Retinol [μg]	Vitamin A [IU]	Vitamin B1 [mg]	Vitamin B2 [mg]	Vitamin C [mg]	Vitamin D [IU]	Niacin [mg]
England (1991) Men 15-18	2755	55.2		1000	11.3	700		1.1		40	-	18
Japan (1994) Men 16-17	2750	80		800	12		2000	1.1	1.5	50	100(μg)	18
America (1989) Men 15-18	3000	59		1200	12	1000				60	10	20
Sweden (1980) Men 19-22	2900			600	10			1.5	1.7	60	5(μg)
Italy (1978) Men 20-39	3000	64	83	600	10			1.2	1.6	45	2.5(μg)
Canada (1975) Men 16-18	3200	54		1000	14			1.6	2	30	2.5(μg)
Norway (1980) Men 19-22	2900			600	10			1.5	1.7	60	5(μg)
India (1981) Men 16-18	2820	53.1		500 - 600	25	750		1.4	1.7	40	200	19
Argentina (1976) Men 18-35	3200	39		700	5 - 9		2500	1.3	1.9	30	100	21

Trivia

On the 8th of August 2005 the song "kurukuru tamago gohan" was released. (Kurukuru means "thriving").