Gomoku Chahan Features Rice and Seasonal Ingredients

Similar to the culture of American-style Chinese food we have in the States, Japan has wafu-chuuka or "Japanese-style Chinese". Along with dishes like Ramen and Ebi Chiri, Gomoku Chahan or "Five Ingredient Fried Rice" is a great example of this pseudo-cuisine.

It's a far cry from the Chinese original, using sticky shortgrain rice instead of the dryer Chinese long-grain, but it's still delicious in its own way.

The term gomoku (??) refers to the five ingredients mixed in with the rice. The most typical ingredients are eggs, ham, onions, carrots and peas, but shrimp or scallions are sometimes substituted for the ham and onion. These ingredients are stir-fried until browned and fragrant before being fried together with the rice.

Since Japanese rice tends to be much stickier than Chinese rice, it's important to use stale rice (a few days in the fridge should do the trick). This ensures that each grain of rice will fry up separately, allowing them to brown rather than steam and imbuing a marvelous toasty flavor. While the outside may no longer be sticky, the inside of each grain of rice retains its original toothsome texture, giving the finished fried rice a marvelous mouthfeel.

To keep the eggs from becoming overcooked and rubbery, I like to scramble them first and then remove them from the pan when they're just barely cooked. Then, they go back in at the very end to reheat, ensuring you have tender creamy curds rather than chewy dry lumps of egg.