Omurice is short for Omelette Rice which is fried rice wrapped in egg instead of other stuffings like ham and cheese.
Omurice comes from two words, omelette + rice. The dish originally comes from Japanese cuisine but it has become so popular in Korea over time that now it has become a part of Korean cuisine. In particular, it is usually a part of a Korean food category called Bunsik.
Now, let me talk a little about Bunsik. What does Bunsik mean? Bunsik 粉食 분식 literally means “food made from flour” but in reality, it has become to mean a certain group of Korean dishes that are inexpensive, attractive to younger crowds and is also great as snacks. Tteokbokki, Udon, Oden soup, Kimbap, Twigim, Mandu and other noodle dishes like ramen are some very classic menu items at a Bunsik restaurant.
So since when and how was Bunsik ever came to exist?
This is a bit of a sad story… The term was created in 1960’s when Koreans were suffering from a shortage of rice after the war and also due to the great typhoon in 1962 along with a very bad crop year. In order to overcome the shortage of rice and overcome the famine, the Korean government came up with two concepts – Honsik 혼식 and Bunsik 분식. Honsik encouraged Koreans to eat multi-grain rice especially barley mixed with rice. And then because in 1963, Korea received a tons of flour from US, sent as aid to Korea, the Korean government wanted to really encourage Koreans to eat flour more and eat less rice. This was not an easy feat because rice has always been a main staple for Koreans.
I remember when I was in elementary school, we had mandatory Bunsik days which was Wednesdays and Saturdays. On these days, we HAD to bring bread or sandwich for lunch. No rice allowed. And on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, rice in our lunch boxes had to be mixed with at least 30% of barley or some other non-rice grains such as millet. How the teachers were able to tell whether the rice contained more than 30% barley, I would never know but that’s how things were. This is probably really hard to imagine for today’s Koreans. These days, Koreans will pay extra money at restaurants to eat multi-grain rice instead of plain white rice, for health reasons just like Americans try to eat more whole grain breads. But in those days no one wanted to eat multi-grain rice because they thought it did not taste good and eating 100% white rice was almost a sign of being wealthy.
So one of the ways the government could force everyone to eat more flour and non-white rice grains was to do it through school lunches. I remember I really dreaded the part of lunch time where we got our lunch inspected by the teacher. I know.. it kind of sounds like a communist country.. That was just the reality but school was still a lot of fun. The younger generation will never know this but efforts like these are essentially how Korea came out of poverty so quickly. I think I sum it up and say that Korea was basically run like how a tiger mom raises her kids. And under such guidance and control, you most often produce high achieving kids but not without side effects.
Anyway, that’s the history behind Bunsik and I lived through it!
Anyway, this was something I used to make for myself all the time when I was in high school. It was a way for me to treat myself when I was studying at home for exams. When you have to study all day long, from morning till late night, eating something yummy for lunch or snack was about the only thing to look forward to all day. Probably also why I got so chubby during high school. HAHA. And making omurice was easy enough for a high school kid to make, so I did!
How to make Omurice
Servings: 3 Cooking Time: 25 min Difficulty: Medium
Ingredients
- 4 cups cooked cold short grain rice
- 1 small carrot, chopped (1/3 cup)
- 1 small onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
- 4 green onions, chopped (1/2 cup)
- 6 oz ground beef, 15% lean
- Seasoning for beef
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp white wine or sake
- 1/2 tsp garlic, chopped
- black pepper
- 2 Tbs vegetable oil
- 4 large eggs (5 if you like thicker egg wrap)
- black pepper and salt
- ketchup
- Cold refrigerated leftover rice makes the BEST fried rice. But if you don’t have any, quickly make some white rice now!
- Chop carrots, onions, green onions and garlic. I like chopping these very fine for Korean style fried rice.
onions, green onions and carrots - Season ground beef by adding soy sauce, sugar, white wine, garlic and dash of black pepper. Set aside.
- Whip eggs in a bowl until smooth. Season lightly with salt.
- Heat 1 Tbsp oil in frying pan on medium high heat. Cook onions and carrots for 1-2 min.
Omurice Veggies Sauteeing in pan - Add seasoned ground beef in pan and sauté for another 2 min until beef is cooked.
Beef and vegetables sauteeing in pan - Add rice to pan. Saute for 3-4 min. until rice is evenly cooked.
Fried Rice in pan ** If using cold rice from fridge, break up leftover cold rice with your hands to separate individual grains onto the pan as you add. You can just dump the rice onto the pan first and break it up with a spoon or stiff spatula but this is a lot harder. It is much easier to break it up by hand beforehand or break onto the pan. If using warm rice, you can easily do it with a spoon.
- Season rice mixture with salt and pepper to taste.
- Add green onions, mix and turn off heat. Set aside.
Fried Rice for Omurice ** If you don’t want to use another pan, transfer the fried rice to a bowl and wipe the pan clean. Then reuse pan for egg in next step.
- Drizzle oil on frying pan on medium heat. Pour 1/3 of egg just enough to cover the pan. Swirl it around to spread the egg in the pan.
Lower heat immediately to simmer and quickly add fried rice in the center part of the egg. Notice how the egg is not fully cooked.
Shape the rice so that it makes a boat shape (not necessary but do it if you want to make it look my picture haha).
- Swish the pan from side to side so that the egg flaps over and covers part of the rice.
Omurice in pan – fried rice on egg Help it along with a spatula. Just try to cover rice partially on each side then transfer over onto a plate but flip it over as you do it.
Topped with parsley and borage blossom. Fried rice wrapped in egg in Korean bunsik
And there you go! Serve with some ketchup to add on top.
Cute idea for kids lunch and lunch boxes!
- You can have so much fun with ketchup! I am no artist but I drew one of my favorite characters from childhood here. If you have children, try doing something fun for them today!
Omurice Cute Woodstock design with ketchup
Omurice (Omelette Rice)
Ingredients
- 4 cups cooked cold short grain rice
- 1 small carrot , chopped (1/3 cup)
- 1 small onion , chopped (1/2 cup)
- 4 green onions , chopped (1/2 cup)
- 6 oz ground beef , 15% lean
Seasoning for beef
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp white wine or sake
- 1/2 tsp garlic , chopped
- black pepper
- 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 4 large eggs (5 if you like thicker egg wrap)
- black pepper and salt
- ketchup
Instructions
- Cold refrigerated leftover rice makes the BEST fried rice. But if you don't have any, quickly make some white rice now!
- Chop carrots, onions, green onions and garlic. I like chopping these very small for Korean style fried rice.
- Season ground beef by adding soy sauce, sugar, white wine, garlic and dash of black pepper. Set aside.
- Whip eggs in a bowl until smooth. Season eggs with salt.
- Heat 1 Tbsp oil in frying pan on medium high heat. Cook onions and carrots for 1-2 min.
- Add seasoned ground beef in pan and sauté for another 2 min until beef is cooked.
- Add rice to pan. Saute for 3-4 min. until rice is evenly cooked. ** If using cold rice from fridge, break up leftover cold rice with your hands to separate individual grains onto the pan as you add. You can just dump the rice onto the pan first and break it up with a spoon or stiff spatula but this is a lot harder. It is much easier to break it up by hand beforehand or break onto the pan. If using warm rice, you can easily do it with a spoon.
- Season rice mixture with salt and pepper to taste.
- Add green onions, mix and turn off heat. Set aside. If you don't want to use another pan, transfer the fried rice to a bowl and wipe the pan clean. Then reuse pan for the egg in next step.
- Drizzle oil on frying pan on medium heat. Pour the egg mixture just enough to cover the pan. Lower heat and quickly add fried rice in the center part of the egg. Shape the rice so that it makes a boat shape (not necessary but do it if you want to make it look my picture haha).
- Swish the pan around from side to side so that the egg flaps over and covers part of the rice. Help it along with a spatula. Just try to cover rice partially on each side then transfer over onto a plate but flip it over as you do it.
Nutrition Information:
Notes
- The most common Omurice recipe will add ketchup to the fried rice itself. You can totally do that. Just add 1 Tbsp of ketchup to your fried rice before the green onions. Personally (although I LOVE ketchup too) I find that adding ketchup in the rice and then also on top egg is a little too much. The contract of flavors you get when eating plain fried rice + egg + ketchup works best for me.
- You can add other vegetables in addition – potatoes, zucchini and asparagus will all work nicely. Substitute chicken or canned tuna for beef for variation.
Serving suggestions
- Serve with kimchi, sweet radish pickle (danmuji), myulchi bokkeum with a side of Korean cabbage slaw salad with mayo dressing.
- It’s also nice to serve some warm soup like Gyeran Guk (Egg drop soup) as you see in this picture.
Omurice and Gyeran Guk
I loved this article about bunshik as well as the recipe. I immigrated to the US when I was 6 so did not know any of this. I learned so much! Thank you!
Thank you Bo!! I didn’t know you immigrated so young?!~ I’m glad you enjoyed the info. Just sharing my experiences and memories.. sooo much has changed in my lifetime sometimes it’s pretty mind-boggling. Take care!