page_title: Japanese rice
section_title: Uses
hierarchical_section_title: Japanese rice / Uses
context_page_description: Japanese rice refers to a number of short-grain cultivars of Japonica rice including ordinary rice and glutinous rice.
  Ordinary Japanese rice, or uruchimai, is the staple of the Japanese diet and consists of short translucent grains. When cooked, it has a sticky texture such that it can easily be picked up and eaten with chopsticks. Outside Japan it is sometimes labeled sushi rice, as this is one of its common uses. It is also used to produce sake.
  Glutinous rice, known in Japan as mochigome, is used for making mochi and special dishes such as sekihan. It is a short-grain rice, and can be distinguished from uruchimai by its particularly short, round, opaque grains, its greater stickiness when cooked, and firmer and chewier texture.
context_section_description: Ordinary rice, or uruchimai, is eaten in several ways in Japan, most commonly as plain rice "gohan" (ご飯, lit. "cooked rice" or "meal of any sort") consumed as part of a typical washoku meal accompanied by several okazu dishes (おかず), tsukemono (various pickles),  and miso soup.  In bento boxes it is often served with a topping of furikake (ふりかけ), a single umeboshi, or a sheet of nori (海苔). It is used in sushi (寿司) and onigiri. 
  Examples of simple breakfast dishes include plain rice mixed with raw egg and optional soy sauce, known as tamago kake gohan, and plain rice with nattō. Plain rice is used in yōshoku dishes such as curry rice, omurice, and doria.  Leftover plain rice is often reused as ochazuke (茶漬け) (rice with green tea) or chāhan (チャーハン) (fried rice).  
  Takikomi gohan is made with ordinary rice which is cooked together with vegetables, meat, or fish seasoned with dashi and soy sauce. 
  Uruchimai is also used to make alcoholic drinks like sake (日本酒), and sometimes shochu, as an adjunct in Japanese beer, and to make rice vinegar.
  Uncooked brown rice grains are mixed with green tea leaves and used to brew a kind of tea called Genmaicha (玄米茶) (brown rice tea).
  Glutinous rice, known in Japan as mochigome, is used for making mochi (餅), the festive red bean and rice dish sekihan, as well as traditional snacks such as senbei (煎餅), arare (あられ), and agemochi (揚げ餅).
caption: Sushi by Hiroshige in Edo period
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