A Japanese toast sandwich remix: The toasted rice rice ball[SoraKitchen]

Mr. Sato steps into the SoraKitchen with a bold idea.

Food, as a broad topic, is pretty much always on our mind here at SoraNews24, but recently our ace reporter Mr. Sato found himself thinking about toast sandwiches in particular. Like many people who grew up outside the U.K., Mr. Sato initially found the concept of a sandwich where the inside and outside are made of the same thing to be kind of bizarre. And yet, the toast sandwich has been part of British cuisine for more than 150 years, so it must have a lot of fans, right?

As a matter of fact, we’ve got at least one of those fans among our born-in-Japan staff, as Mr. Sato’s colleague K. Masami made and taste-tested a toast sandwich a while back, and found it very tasty.

▼ Masami doesn’t spend all of her time drinking Frappuccinos.

And it’s not like Japan has anything against carbs, what with rice being the national dietary staple. So this got Mr. Sato thinking…could he create the Japanese food equivalent to the U.K.’s toast sandwich?

The first thing that came to mind for a rice-rice combo was okayu rice, made by pouring okayu (rice porridge) over steamed rice.

However, okayu rice had two strikes against it. First, okayu itself is generally something you’re supposed to eat when you’re sick, whereas toast sandwiches are more of a straight comfort food. Second, the idea of okayu rice was already floated in Kyukyoku Chojin R, a somewhat obscure gag manga from the ‘80s. That means okayu rice already had it’s chance to become a thing, and so Mr. Sato, bold pioneer that he is, wanted to try something else.

And what he decided to try is a rice onigiri, or rice rice ball.

The more he thought about it, the more convinced he became that this could be Japan’s toast sandwich, because in addition to regular rice balls, Japan also loves toasted rice balls, which are called yakionigiri. Feeling fired up about his idea, Mr. Sato fired up his rice cooker and made a pot of white rice.

He then set aside a portion of it to use for the outer sections of his rice rice ball. That left the rest to become the toasted filling, to which Mr. Sato added soy sauce and then formed into triangles.

After heating some sesame oil in a frying pan, he put the rice in to let it flat grill. This step felt a lot like cooking up some hamburger patties, especially when he flipped the rice rice and gave it a press with his spatula on each side to create crispness on the surface.

After taking his toasted rice out of the pan and letting it cool for a bit, the only thing left to do was to slap it between upper and lower layers of untoasted white rice…

…and his toasted rice rice ball was done!

Taking a bite, he was met by the inviting fluffiness of the untoasted rice, and as he passed through it the fragrant, savory saltiness of the toasted rice emanated from within, which in turn helped draw out more of the untoasted rice’s natural sweetness.

It was, simply put, delicious, but Mr. Sato already has some ideas to help the toasted rice rice ball achieve even more of its potential. For starters, he realized that if he formed the for-filling rice first and spread the soy sauce across it with a brush, the sauce would be distributed more uniformly and help the rice toast more evenly. He’s also thinking of swapping out the soy sauce and using miso paste instead, which would add some extra complexity to the flavor and texture.

For now, though, he’s very happy with how his Japanese-version toast sandwich turned out, and recommends trying it for yourself too.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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