Most of the flavor here comes from the scallions. Thinly sliced and fried until their edges turn golden, they leave behind an oil that coats the shrimp and every grain of rice, so soy sauce and oyster sauce are all it needs.
Large shrimp are split lengthwise before rolling, which packs the middle of every slice with pink shrimp. Egg strips, sauteed carrot and cucumber go in too, but nothing strongly seasoned, and it eats lighter than most gimbap.
The shrimp are split into two uses. Heads and shells simmer into the stock the rice cooks in, while the meat is minced, given a quick turn in sesame oil with garlic, and set aside until the grains have fully broken down.
Instead of sushi vinegar, the rice gets a generous amount of akumochizake, Kagoshima's ash-treated local sake, and is layered with separately cooked dried daikon, shiitake, butterbur, bamboo shoot, sea bream, shrimp, and fish cakes. Traditional versions use raw cured bream and rest for half a day at room temperature; this home version cooks all the seafood through and rests the covered sushi in the refrigerator for 6 to 8 hours so the aromas meld. Because the sake is never heated, its alcohol stays in the dish, which makes it adults-only and unsuitable for pregnancy, children, or anyone driving afterward.
Brown rice is topped with pan-seared salmon, blanched spinach, shredded carrot and avocado, then dressed with soy sauce, lemon juice and sesame oil. Against the chewy rice, the salmon is cooked only until its center is still faintly translucent and stays moist.
Five minutes in soy and sesame oil is all the salmon gets: long enough to turn the surface glossy, short enough that the inside still eats like sashimi. The fish comes out of the marinade as soon as a light soy tint appears, before the soy takes over its flavor.
Fernbrake, bellflower root and chwi-namul (aster greens) each get their own treatment: the fernbrake turns soft in sesame oil, the bellflower root is salted to draw out bitterness yet stays crisp, and the aster is blanched just until bright green. Cooked separately, they still taste and bite differently after mixing, and the gochujang sauce is served alongside to add a little at a time.
The rice takes seafood stock a ladle at a time, and saffron soaked in a couple of spoonfuls of that stock goes in partway through to turn it yellow. Shrimp and squid wait until the rice is nearly done and come off the heat before they curl up tight.
Despite the Korean name, which points to gim (roasted laver), this bowl is built on rehydrated wakame. A short toss in sesame oil with garlic keeps the seaweed slippery and chewy while turning its sea smell nutty. With only five ingredients, water left in the wakame does the most damage: it spatters in the hot oil and thins the soy sauce until the whole bowl tastes flat.
Because ordinary short-grain rice, not glutinous rice, goes into this Chiba rice cake, the finished mochi is less sticky than the usual kind and keeps a soft but clearly grained bite. Non-glutinous rice will not pound smooth after one steaming. The second steaming softens its firm core, and the brief cold-water dip in between separates the kernels and tops up their moisture. Leave the rice in that water too long and the cake turns soggy. It comes from the Sosa area.
Chilled uni meant for raw eating goes onto rice that has been allowed to stop steaming. Rice that is too hot starts to cook the surface of the roe and changes its texture. There is no gochujang, just a little sesame oil and sesame seeds, with shredded lettuce, radish sprouts and seasoned seaweed flakes.
Freshly cooked rice pounded only halfway, rather than all the way into mochi, gives these grilled skewers a toasted outside and an inside with distinct grains. The topping is junen miso: egoma (perilla seed, called junen in Fukushima) toasted, ground until slightly oily, and mixed with sugar, miso, and sake. Pull them from the heat at light char marks, since the sugar in the paste turns bitter once it blackens.
Doenjang (Korean soybean paste) is dissolved into anchovy stock, and the porridge tastes close to a bowl of doenjang soup. The rice is toasted in sesame oil before the stock goes in, and the spinach, blanched and chopped ahead, is stirred in just before the heat goes off and served while it is still bright green.
Siraegi, dried radish greens boiled until tender, steam on top of the rice, and nothing seasons the pot. Each person stirs in a doenjang and soy paste with chili flakes and green onion, a spoonful at a time, and decides how salty the bowl gets.
Poached chicken breast, pulled into fine shreds, turns up in every spoonful. The savory depth of the porridge comes from siraegi (boiled dried radish greens) and garlic sauteed in sesame oil before the rice goes in.
Boneless mackerel means you can pour the doenjang broth straight over rice without picking out bones. Siraegi (dried radish greens) simmered until the stems are tender makes the broth deep and earthy, and the chili-seasoned fish gives it a little bite.
Soy-marinated beef lines the bottom of the pot, the rice is layered over it, and siraegi (boiled dried radish greens) tossed with doenjang and perilla oil crowns the rice as it cooks. The beef seasons the lower layer while the greens season the upper one. A gentle stir at the end brings the two together.
Chicken cooked down with soy sauce, mirin and ginger juice, and sweetened egg scrambled into tiny yellow grains, each take half of the bowl. Left unmixed, they let you change the balance with every spoonful. Both need to end up as fine crumbles, and the chopsticks keep moving in the pan the whole time.
With 180 g of king oyster and shiitake mushrooms to 200 g of beef, there is nearly as much mushroom as meat in every bite. The mushrooms are wiped clean rather than washed, added to beef already browned in butter, and stir-fried hard until they wilt before soy sauce goes in around the edge of the pan.
Browned ground beef gives this fried rice its savory base, with onion, carrot and zucchini diced just a little larger than the rice so they keep some bite. The beef is left alone in a hot pan before breaking it up, and the browned bits stuck to the bottom carry much of the flavor.
Thinly sliced beef and onion, glazed in a sweet soy and garlic marinade much like bulgogi, go over rice with whatever sauce is left in the pan. Unlike a brothy Japanese gyudon, this one is stir-fried hard and fast so only a small pool of glossy sauce remains to soak the rice.
The filling is just four things: beef marinated in soy and sugar and stir-fried, spinach, carrot and strips of thin omelet. The beef is sliced thin against the grain and cooked until the marinade clings with no liquid left, which keeps the rice dry and the cut slices clean.
Ground beef and rice are toasted in sesame oil before the water goes in, and a tablespoon of soup soy sauce does the seasoning. The 160 g of rice in the ingredient list is its weight after soaking and draining; starting from dry rice adds about 30 minutes of soaking.
Beef head meat simmers with radish, scallion and garlic for two and a half hours until the broth turns milky. The meat is then lifted out, pulled along the grain or sliced thin, and returned to the strained broth with salt and black pepper. Before all that, it is soaked in cold water and blanched for five minutes, and that first water is thrown away.