Cooking World

For the long Japanese history rice has been the most important food stuff in the national cuisine. Though in recent years rice eating patterns has changed and rice consumption decreased, all the same it remains one of the most important ingredients and can be met in many dishes.
Sticky, short-grained rice is actually the main food in Japan. Raw rice is called kome. There are several thousand varieties of rice grown in Japan, and Koshihikari and Akita Komachi are the most popular. This cereal also is used to make Japanese rice cakes mochi, rice crackers senbei and rice wine, known in the world as sake. Rice can also be cooked with sekihan, which is red beans, seafood and vegetables or as a kind of watery porridge with kayu salt which is also well-known, as a cold remedy.
Onigiri are rice balls made of cooked rice and usually wrapped with nori seaweed. They are a little salted and often contain some additional fillings in the center: it may be pickled Japanese apricot, dried bonito shavings, or seafood as tuna or salmon. This dish is popular and inexpensive snack, which can be bought almost in any convenience store.