Tamago kake gohan or Tamago gohan in short is a popular Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese breakfast

Breakfast

Breakfast is the first meal taken after rising from a night's sleep, most often eaten in the early morning before undertaking the day's work...

 food

Food

Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...

 consisting of cooked rice

Rice

Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...

 topped or mixed with raw egg

Egg (food)

Eggs are laid by females of many different species, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and have probably been eaten by mankind for millennia. Bird and reptile eggs consist of a protective eggshell, albumen , and vitellus , contained within various thin membranes...

 and—optionally—soy sauce

Soy sauce

Soy sauce is a condiment produced by fermenting soybeans with Aspergillus oryzae or Aspergillus sojae molds, along with water and salt...

.

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" (gohan means rice or food and bukkake means "splashed" or "dashed"), "tamago bukkake meshi" (meshi means rice or food), "tamago gohan", or simply "tamago kake". Tamago (egg) may be written 玉子, as an alternative to the single character 卵.

Method of preparation

A raw egg and Japanese rice is simply mixed in the rice bowl.

There is no "correct" way to make this everyday dish. The rice can be cold, recently cooked or re-heated; the egg may be broken directly into the rice bowl (before or after the rice), or beaten in a separate bowl beforehand. Some people dig a "well" in the mound of rice to pour the egg into.

Here is one example:

Nutrition facts

Eggs contain many nutrients and protein which are denatured when cooked; therefore it is thought that eating them raw maximises the beneficial effects of these nutrients. In actuality, however, only half of the protein in raw eggs is digestible as compared to cooked eggs. The egg yolk contains more than enough levels of biotin to compensate for the high levels of avidin in raw egg white, which binds to the B-vitamin biotin, preventing their absorption and potentially causing a deficiency if the yolk is not consumed with the white.

See also

• Omurice
  Omurice
  Omurice, sometimes spelled , is an example of contemporary Japanese fusion cuisine consisting of an omelette made with fried rice and usually topped with ketchup. Omu and raisu being contractions of the words omelette and rice, the name is a wasei-eigo...
  
  
• Japanese cuisine
  Japanese cuisine
  Japanese cuisine has developed over the centuries as a result of many political and social changes throughout Japan. The cuisine eventually changed with the advent of the Medieval age which ushered in a shedding of elitism with the age of shogun rule...
  
  
• List of egg dishes