65. Furikake

I have heard that Japanese furikake is now booming overseas.

Furikake is a dry Japanese condiment sprinkled on top of cooked rice and so on, according to Wikipedia.

Small packaged furikake is useful for boxed lunch.

We usually eat boiled rice, which has no particular taste. To improve appetite as well as to add nutrition, the Japanese used to sprinkle various kinds of fragmented foods, such as processed fish, sesame seeds, chopped seaweed, as well as condiments like sugar and salt.

When I was a child, sesame seeds and salt; shaved and seasoned dried bonito (tsukudani); processed small fish or seaweed and the like were popular.

Denbu, a kind of tsukudani, is made from codfish.

As freeze-drying techniques have developed, various kinds of foods are freeze-dried, such as barbecued meats.

Furikake of barbecued meat and umeboshi (dried and pickled plum fruit).

Today, we have wide variety of furikake, and I have heard that Western people get some furikake as souvenirs.

Furikake is useful not only for rice but for pastas, sandwiches, fried potatoes and so on.

Furikake of salted cod’s roe taste (left in the image) and green perilla (right) are suitable for pasta.