-In Japan, omelet rice is
one of the most popular, like, home-cooking dishes. Yeah, there's probably like
millions of variation, and I might not
even know everything. It's a challenge every weekend. ♪♪ Hi, my name is
Shintaro Eleazar Okuda, and I'm from Bar Moga Today, I'm going to show you
how to make omurice. So the first thing
we're gonna do is crack the egg
and make the egg mixture. What I use is eggs
and milk and cream. The origin of the dish omurice is starting
at the 1920 Taisho era. When World War I
is about to be ended, we realized that,
as a Japanese person, we are too small
to fight across the world. We literally, size-wise --
like too small. So let's eat
what European people, what other people eat
so that maybe we get bigger. As Japanese,
We're not used to eating like, a lot of meat,
grains, bread -- glutens especially. It upsets our stomach. So that's why that's why
we need to reinvent it so that we can eat it,
we can consume it, and we don't get fucked up. You're gonna need
a lot of eggs. You're not gonna --
you're not gonna get it right for the first time. I'm gonna scale it. 42. ♪♪ My grandma used to make this
all the time when I don't want to eat, like,
fish, meat. She'd just whip it out. Make sure to cut the whites,
egg whites. Once this is properly mixed, you're gonna strain this egg to add an extra silky texture. And make sure to strain
as much as possible. If you don't
strain it enough, when you put
the milk and cream, the ratio will be
a little bit different, so it's not going to get
the right texture. So now,
this is about 700 grams. Now you're gonna add 70 grams
of cream and milk. Give it a light mix. If you mix it too much
at this point, obviously heavy cream
is going to be whipped cream. It makes a different texture. All right,
now this egg mix is done. It's nice. It's also important
to give it a little rest because it has
a lot of air in it. So when you cook it, the air pocket is going to, um, just like sucks in the heat, so it cooks, like,
actually faster. So now I'm going to make
the fried rice part. What I like to use is this is our, uh,
house-made ketchup. I make it in Bar Moga. Fresh tomatoes, just grounded,
at a lot of spices in. For this rice part,
a lot of people -- like, most people do it
with onions and chicken. That's a classic version. Some people use ground beef. Some people use pork. Some people use a sausage. You know,
people are lazy about that. They just use bacon. And you're still going to be
making a bomb-ass omurice. My hometown is really
countryside where mountains, like oceans are, like, right next to it? My grandfather used to used
to catch a fish at like 5:00 in the morning. You know,
he would catch the fish and then cut it open
right in front of me. First thing he's going to do
is, like, "Yo, Shintaro, come in here. I'll cut open the fish." And it's like, "okay." And, uh, yeah,
that's how I got into cooking. That's --
that's my grandfather's side. And my grandma is just
super professional home cooking. So now I'm gonna make
chicken rice. I'd like to cut it
a little bigger, too, 'cause I like chicken. Just melted your butter. This should melt the butter. Do not burn it. And put the chicken in. ♪♪ And, you know, this chicken
is about 40, 50 percent cooked. Make sure you don't
cook it all the way because you're still going
to cook the onions then you're gonna put
the sauce, then you're going
to heat it up altogether. So chicken gets too tough if you cook it too much
right now. Then you'll put the onions. Add the salt and pepper. ♪♪ Saute the onion
until it's, like, getting clear. It's time for me
to put the rice. I like to cook the rice
with the chicken stock. You can just cook regular rice,
and it's gonna be fine. This is actually
what my grandma taught me. It was, like, very strictly. "Shintaro,
if you're gonna cook rice, Do not touch rice.
Just flip the pan. That's how you do." Now, you're going to put
the sauce. Homemade ketchup. The demiglace sauce -- I use a veal stock and tomato. Red wine, honey, and all the other ingredients
in it. And just keep reducing it
for three days straight to make this thick consistency. And demiglace sauce. If you don't have demiglace, you can obviously just do it
with a store-bought ketchup. You flip it one time to make sure
sauce gets hot first. Once the sauce is hot, you just flip it over
to mix the rice and sauce. Just put that on a mold. Okay. Put the rice. Put it on a plate
in the center. And then just gonna rest it. Let's look at this. Just comes out
in a nice little shape. Now I'm going to show you
how to make the omelet, which is the most
difficult part. So what you need is
an 8-inch skillet, nonstick pan
as new as possible. And canola oil. And make sure the pans hot. And all parts of the pan
is coated with the oil. And the egg you just mixed. As as soon as you get it in,
you mix it. Move your pan up and down
and around. Circle your chopsticks
so it cooks like this. And tap it so that the outside
kicks off from the pan. [ Pan tapping ] Scrape from the outside
and the inside. Flick your pan
as much as possible. [ Pan tapping ] And take out the side. Fold it. Some people just don't even
close it. Some people don't even -- like, don't even, like,
try to fold it, just give up on, like,
"Oh, yeah. just like, you know, this is
kind of, sort of runny, right?" And they fold it
and they put that on the rice. "Yeah, I guess that's okay."
And they cut it open. Like, that's what I don't like. And tuck this in. Takes out the top part. Then you tap it. That tapping is gonna
automatically roll the egg. Okay, and then
fold it back again, make a nice football shape. ♪♪ We'll grab the very top, and just a light flip. Perfect is like wrinkle-less,
nice football shape, and just feels sexy. Put the side, so make sure
it gets sealed completely. Roll on the pan.
Good to go. So now omurice is ready. Take out the mold. And just nicely put this omelet
on top of the rice. Boom. There you have omurice. And you're just gonna
cut it open. ♪♪ Bam. Top with the homemade
demiglace sauce. ♪♪ Alright. Put your mentality back
when you're a child, then grab a fucking spoon,
and eat it. ♪♪ Delicious. So this egg is perfectly cooked, unlike all those
YouTube video I've seen. So when I took
the bite of omurice, it just takes me back
of, uh, memory when I was like 7, 8 years old
super hungry, but I also want to play
a videogame. My grandma be like, "Yo, come
sit down and eat first." And I'd be like, "Okay." And then omurice
comes on the table, I'd be like, "ah, cool.
I get down." So for the recipe,
click the link below, or come to Bar Moga
to see me. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪
This is something considered “home-leftovers food” so I agree I wouldn’t expect to see it on a menu; a decent Japanese-owned restaurant would likely make it if they have the ingredients. (We make it every couple of weeks since it’s a guaranteed win with our two kids! It’s really straightforward so I could recommend a recipe if you’d be interested.)
I googled it man just for MA. It came up with a lot of places in Cambridge. That all say they have it but not one on a menu. I’d bet dollars to donuts that a decent Japanese place will make it off menu for you if you ask. I would ask my local sushi hibachi place to make special stuff for years and if they could they always did and usually was excited to do it.
Try Cafe Mami, Tampopo or Ittoku in Porter Square Shops (Porter Square-Red Line Stop, Cambridge).