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- egg on rice / Eggs / Hinode Tamago eggs / Mishima / raw egg / tamagokake gohan / TAMAGOYA / TKG
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Egg fanciers are generally quite favored in Japan. Not only do they usually have access to a wide selection, from cheap eggs at the supermarket to free-range, organic, and many other kinds at specialty stores and markets, but there are also many egg dishes, from traditional chawanmushi savory custard and dashimaki seasoned with dashi broth to oyakodon chicken and egg on rice, not to mention more relatively recent creations such as omurice.
Another surprising fact about eggs in Japan is that they're considered safe to eat raw since they're almost always pasteurized and specially checked to ensure that they are free of salmonella. People just don't get sick. Of course, it's not unheard of but it's very rare.
Common TKG
Those who have visited or lived in Japan have probably seen raw eggs available at breakfast buffets in hotels or occasionally served on the side in a lunch set at a Japanese eatery.
The most common way of enjoying eggs raw is to eat them together with a bowl of steaming rice, which is known as 卵かけご飯 tamagokake gohan (also abbreviated as "TKG" in recent years).
akatuki_70D / © PIXTA
Some people break the egg yolk with their chopstick and just begin eating, others like to mix it up first inside the rice bowl, and yet others like to whisk the egg in a small dish with their chopsticks before pouring it on the rice. Some people also like to add things like soy sauce, condiments and toppings.
I've had my share of TKG but the dish has never really stood out as the star of my breakfast and it was never something I thought of as particularly memorable. If I had to choose between an omelet and a raw egg, I'd usually choose the former over the latter.
However, ever since I visited TAMAGOYA, an egg-specialty store and cafe in Mishima, Shizuoka Prefecture, which happens to serve the most incredible fluffy creme brulee pancakes, my tolerance for TKG has turned into appreciation.
As it turns out, doing one thing differently may completely change your TKG game.
Cloud TKG with Truffle Soy Sauce
When I visited TAMAGOYA, I stopped at their gift shop and bought a pack of their Hinode Tamago 日の出たまご eggs, a local Mishima brand of premium eggs, along with a bottle of their truffle-infused soy sauce. Next to the eggs, they displayed a photo showing their recommended TKG style, which completely caught me off guard.
You couldn't see the rice at all. Just a mound of whipped egg whites and an orange-red yolk resting on top. The shop clerk explained to me that it's just a question of separating the egg from the yolk first, then whipping the egg whites with an electric blender until it's firm, placing it on top of your bowl of rice, then adding the egg yolk in the center!
Of course, I was eager to see if I could reproduce the same thing at home.
Photo by grape Japan
A pack of six eggs, a bottle of TAMAGOYA truffle-infused soy sauce.
Let's take a look at these special Hinode Tamago eggs...
Photo by grape Japan
They looked fine, no eggs cracked during my travels...
Photo by grape Japan
The inside of the carton explains the seven reasons why Hinode Tamago eggs are delicious:
*On their website they explain that being able to pick up an egg yolk with your fingers is a reflection of the natural vitality of chickens raised in the best possible conditions.
Sounds promising. And indeed, cracking one of them open, I was duly impressed by the rich orange-red color of the yolk:
Photo by grape Japan
Now for the fun part: separating the egg yolk from the whites. Indeed, I was able to lift up the yolk, pinching it between my fingers, which made separating it from the egg whites very easy. A few minutes later and I had my firmly whipped egg whites, one egg yolk in a separate dish, and a bowl of steaming Koshihikari rice from the rice cooker. I wasn't able to make my whipped egg whites look as beautiful as it did in the photo, but here's the end result:
Photo by grape Japan
It already looked much more inviting than any TKG I had tried. But there was one final step. If you don't happen to have truffle-infused soy sauce, you can make your own by adding a bit of truffle oil to soy sauce, or just go for regular soy sauce. It will still be better than the normal TKG you've tried before.
Photo by grape Japan
So how does it taste? Only one way to find out...
Photo by grape Japan
The cloud of fluffy egg whites mixed with the rich egg yolk and truffle soy sauce created a combination of tastes and textures that made it truly exceptional. The one thing I don't like about conventional tamagokake gohan is the raw egg whites that remain uncooked and runny in the rice bowl. If the rice is piping hot, some of it may congeal, but it's a bit unpleasant. This way of making TKG fixes the problem and makes egg whites more enjoyable while creating a new texture to try.
Even if you don't live in Japan, you can make Cloud TKG with pasteurized eggs, but if you do live in Japan and want to make it exactly as I did, or if you just want to enjoy some really good free-range eggs for whatever recipe you have in mind, here's the information you need:
Product Information
日の出たまご Hinode Tamago eggs
Brick-and-mortar shop:
Online Sales:
TAMAGOYA truffle-infused TKG soy sauce
Product Name (JP): 【卵かけごはん専用 おしょうゆ】トリュフ香るきみの隠し味
Brick-and-mortar shop:
Online Sales:
Abovementioned prices include tax.