Omurice (オムライス, omelette over ketchup rice)

People get nervous at the fold of omurice. They imagine a restaurant trick, a perfect yellow blanket tucked around rice with no wrinkle in sight. The dish is kinder than that. Make the rice dry and savory, cook the eggs just until set, then fold with calm hands. If the edge is not perfect, the spoon will forgive you. It is a generous utensil.

Omurice is yōshoku, Western-style Japanese food that became entirely our own at the home table. Here ketchup is not a joke and not a shortcut. Fry it briefly with onion and chicken before the rice goes in, and its sharp sweetness turns round and glossy. That is why the rice tastes cooked, not merely stained red.

The detail that decides the dish is the egg. Keep the pan moderate, the butter pale, and the top of the omelette still moist when the rice goes in. Brown the egg and it tightens; overfill it and it tears. A small oval of rice wrapped in soft egg, a ribbon of ketchup, a spoon at the rim. Honmono, made on a weeknight, with nothing hidden.