In the Japanese diet, rice, not wheat or potatoes, is the main source of carbohydrates.
Rice has less protein than wheat, but the protein quality is higher.
Rice is usually boiled and eaten plain.
It is served in bento and meals at the table.
Japanese rice is mediumgrain rice, so the grains stick together, and it is easier to eat with chopsticks (hashi) than a fork or spoon.
It can be formed into rice balls (omusubi).
Omusubi can have salted salmon flakes or pickled plum in the middle.
It is then wrapped with a strip of seaweed (nori).
Cooked glutinous rice can also be pounded into mochi.
Mochi is a kind of rice dough that is eaten especially at New Year’s.
Rice is also made into a rice cracker called sembei.
Glutinous rice can be cooked with azuki beans to make red rice with beans (sekihan).
This is usually served to celebrate life events.
Needless to say, rice is extremely important to the Japanese.
Rosanjin Kitaoji, a Japanese artist known as a gourmet, wrote,
“Rice is the most important part of a meal
….A cook who does not know how to cook rice is not a first-class chef.”
(Quoted from Okome no Hanashi)