The post-apocalyptic Japanese fantasy film Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind (Kaze no Tani no Naushika) came out in 1984. If you watched it as a kid, the odds are that your life was changed in some drastic way. Maybe you decided you wanted to be just like princess Nausicaä when you grew up, and learned how to fly. Or, you might have secretly decided to move to Japan, where those amazing creatures might live. Or, like one Niconico contributor, you were inspired to create an incredible replica of the king of the giant insects… the gigantic, trilobite-like Ohm… in the form of a rice omelette.
Omu-rice is an omelette made with fried rice—a popular Japanese dish, commonly served up with ketchup on top in a zigzag or smiley-face. This Ohm-rice tribute to Nausicaä looks a lot more ominous. If you’d like to try making Ohm-rice with squid ink sauce and spinach powder, you can have a go with the rough recipe provided below!
▼ In case you haven’t seen any Ohms around lately, this is the ideal look we’re going for! Trilobite or a relative of Armadillidiidae… you decide!
The basic ingredients used were as follows:
- Some soft cake flour
- Sweet corn, 1 can
- Some roasted sesame seeds
- Baby tomatoes (7)
- Squid ink sauce, half a packet
- Spinach powder, 5 tablespoons
- Bacon
- Ketchup
- White rice
- 4 eggs
You can begin by making the tentacles or mandibles first! Mix flour, spinach powder and sesame seeds, then add the squid ink sauce (in this case, a packet of Italian squid ink sauce was used for a realistic coloring) to make dough. Knead the dough, roll small pieces into tentacle shapes, and boil them.
▼Mmmm, looks like leeches from the Amazon.
Next up is the body (the underlying rice)— panfry the white rice with a can of sweet corn, bacon, and ketchup, then shape it into the body of the Ohm.
Finally, the omelette topping. Beat four eggs in a bowl then mix in some squid ink and spinach powder, and fry it in a pan to create a sheet of fried egg that looks like a sheet of seaweed from a distance, and the skin of a living creature close up. Shudder.
Finally, wrap the rice in the dark green sheet of fried egg like an Ohm, with the tentacles in front, and the baby tomatoes cut in half for eyes!
▼Tada!
▼ The Ohm thanks you.
Apparently the taste was very green, as you’d expect, and the rice was the tastiest bit.
The creator of this video says that for their next challenge, they may go on to make the scary tatari-gami (demon) from Princess Mononoke out of sobameshi (a mix of rice and noodles). I admire their bravery. By this stage, I’m a Ghibli wreck!
Leave a Reply