The other day my wife had a surprise for us: Mexican tacos, which were certainly more welcome than the local version would have been, since tako is octopus in Japanese. "But we only have one small package of tortillas," she said, "so when those run out we're going to have 'Taco Rice.'" This is a popular dish from Okinawa, the prefecture that spent a quarter-century as a U.S. territory after World War II, and it's basically taco flavored ground beef served over rice with cheese and lettuce piled on. It's more than just a delicious food: like the Spam Musubi, a Japanese-style onigiri rice ball made with pressed ham that's a staple food in Hawaii, Taco Rice a bridge of culture between East and West. While we ate our tacos and our Taco Rice, we carefully applied Taco Bell sauce from the hoard of packets we brought back from the U.S. last time, such a valuable commodity here. Remember, you can sample many different unique tastes from Japan including Taco Rice with our traditional Food Drops candies and new Food Furikake series.
'Taco Rice' is a hybrid Japanese-American-Mexican dish from Okinawa.
3 comments:
As usual, writing about food has made me really hungry. Damn.
I'm cringing at the thought of your family using Taco Bell "salsa". The last time I was in Japan, I made fajitas for my family. The tortillas were imported from Ohio. Now I'm spoiled (and maybe elitist if you can call the cheapest food in the world elite) by tortillas and salsa from AZ and NM. Poor thing. Maybe you need to setup and exchange. (^-^)
Maybe you could make some extra money by smuggling Taco Bell sauce into Japan. It could be like a Taco Bell Sauce Cartel.
By the way, have you tried to make tortillas by scratch? They're not too hard if you can find some flour and some masa harina.
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