Tamago kake gohan

Tamago kake gohan (left), along with tsukemono and miso soup

Tamago kake gohan (卵かけご飯, egg on rice), or Tamago gohan for short (also abbreviated as the Latin letters TKG) is a popular Japanese breakfast food consisting of cooked rice topped or mixed with raw egg and—optionally—soy sauce.

Background

Tamago kake gohan, popularly abbreviated TKG, 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 known in Japan as "tamago kake gohan" (gohan means rice or food and kake 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 are simply mixed in the rice bowl. The rice may be cold, recently cooked or reheated; 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:

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  1. Put a fresh egg into the Kobachi (小鉢, small bowl).
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  2. Pour a desired amount of soy sauce to taste into the Kobachi.
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  3. Mix the egg and soy sauce together, if the soy sauce makes the mixture somewhat black it is no problem.
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  4. Dig a hollow in the center of the cooked rice in the Chawan (茶碗, a rice bowl) using chopsticks.
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  5. Pour the egg/soy sauce mixture into the hollow.
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  6. Stir the mixture into the rice. The rice becomes a golden color.

There is a particular formulation of soy sauce popular for TKG called おたまはん (Otamahan).

See also

• Omurice
• Japanese cuisine
• List of egg dishes