omuraisu 2

In Japan, omuraisu (rice omelet) is a ketchup-flavored fried rice wrapped inside a thin piece of cooked egg. It’s a popular yoshoku (Japanese-style western cuisine), much like other favorites such as beef stew (beef shichu) or fried prawn (ebi furai). And while rice omelets can be found on the menus of many eateries across Japan, including practically all family restaurant chains, we’re sure you’ll see that there’s something quite special about the omuraisu in the picture above that was recently shared by Twitter user erikichi0115. Yes, the omelet has been infused, it seems almost magically, with pretty white stars. And the picture has taken the Japanese twitterverse by storm, making everyone wonder how in the world the star-spangled omelet was created!

omuraisu original tweet

It appears Japanese Internet users have been utterly fascinated by erikichi0115’s unique and artistic culinary creation, and the picture has now been retweeted over 10,000 times. And in response to tweets asking how the star patterns were actually put into the egg, erikichi0115 has even followed through with a tweet explaining how the magic was done:

omuraisu tweet recipe

The idea behind it is actually quite simple:

(1) Take two eggs and separate the white from one of them
(2) Add the remaining yolk to the other whole egg and beat them all together
(3) Cook the beaten eggs into a thin layer
(4) Once the eggs have been cooked through, take them off the stove
(5) Use a star-shaped cutter to cut out stars in the egg
(6) Put the egg back on the stove and pour in the egg white from Step One
(7) Heat until the white is cooked and you now have stars in your egg!

Now, isn’t that ingenious? And with this method, if you use cutters in different shapes, you can create a variety of patterns in your egg, which should be a delightful treat especially for kids.

We’re already seeing many tweets and posts by people who’ve tried making the star-patterned rice omelet and even some in other patterns as well:

スクリーンショット 2014-04-25 7.47.35

スクリーンショット 2014-04-25 7.46.31

I’m not sure the omuraisu will turn out looking quite so nice if I tried it, but in our books, anything that makes cooking and eating fun is certainly welcome, so thank you erikichi0115 for sharing the great idea with us!

Source: Twitter ‏@erikichi0115 via ITmedia (Japanese)
Images: Twitter ‏@erikichi0115, Twitter @hayucch, Twitter @hyap820