Can Japan’s favorite lazy rice topping work its magic on bread too?

Our Japanese-language reporter Seiji Nakazawa is a happily married man (and if you’ll excuse us for bragging about playing cupid, we helped him get that way). But just because a guy says “I do” to his lady love doesn’t mean he suddenly says “I don’t anymore” to all of his old bachelor vices.

Don’t worry, Seiji isn’t out gambling the household’s savings or drinking the night away in hostess bars. He does, however, still have a fondness for furikake, powdered seasonings to sprinkle on white rice. Furikake are a time-tested way for bachelors to add some flavor to their meager attempts at home cooking, especially if they’re too lazy to cook fresh rice in a rice cooker and are using a microwavable rice pack instead.

But today Seiji isn’t pouring furikake on rice. Instead, he’s using it to make some truly high-level bachelor chow: cheeseburger-style furikake toast!

The idea comes from furikake maker Marumiya, whose sukiyaki-flavor furikake Seiji is a big fan of. Looking at the back of the pouch, he found the cheeseburger-style furikake toast recipe, and decided to try it for himself. The ingredient list is mercifully short, consisting mostly of ingredients just about anyone should already have lying around the house.

Ingredients
● One slice of bread
● One slice of cheese
● Ketchup
● Mayonnaise
● Sukiyaki furikake

Step 1: Squirt ketchup and spread mayo onto one side of the bread. Use as much as you want.

Step 2: Place the cheese on top of the ketchup/mayo.

Step 3: Put the slice of bread into your toaster oven and heat it until the cheese gets nice and melty. The recipe recommends three minutes, but Seiji gave his seven, but really whatever time gives you your desired combination of cheese texture and bread crispiness is fine, since you’re not so much cooking the toast as heating it.

Step 4: Take the bread out of the toaster oven and sprinkle furikake on top of the cheese. Again, use as much as you like.

And that’s all there is to it!

Taking a bite, Seiji was surprised at how well the meaty flavor of the furikake mixed with the creamy melted cheese, and despite the lack of a patty, the flavor fired the same pleasure sensors in his brain that a mouthful of cheeseburger would. The furikake maintains a pleasant crunchiness, though, making this a truly unique eating experience. Sure, no one is going to mistake it for gourmet food, but it’s a hot and tasty dish, and something Seiji would definitely eat again, as proven when he immediately made two more slices and ate those too.

So while it may not look as fancy as some of his wife’s home cooking, Seiji now has a new recipe in his arsenal (or several, if he decides to experiment with other types of furikake), he’ll be keeping it in mind for those time when he’s hungry but not in the mood for terrifying octopus eggs.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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[ Read in Japanese ]