Tamago Gohan with Ramps and Nettles

It is interesting to me how many Japanese dishes I come across that I never tried or even heard of when I lived in Japan. I lived over there for two years and although I tried a number of things I missed out on a lot more. One of the things I missed out on is a dish know as TKG, tamago kake gohan. In its most basic form it is just a bowl of steamed rice with a raw egg stirred into it that is served for breakfast. If you want to kick it up some you can add some soy sauce or sesame seeds. Some versions have a small sheet of kombu added for flavor. Any way you look at it, it is one of the simplest and most satisfying things I have ever had for breakfast.



I have been eating tamago gohan for breakfast about once a week for the last several months. As soon as I ate it the first time I thought how wonderful it would be with something wild in it. I almost couldn't wait for spring because I wanted to try it with ramps. I just new that the great garlic and onion flavor of a ramp would be great with rice and egg. The first thing I did this spring when I picked some ramps was make this dish. I had also pick a nice sized bag of nettles to I mixed them in just for fun. If you are looking for a quick and easy breakfast give this a try and if you feel the need to add a few strips of bacon it only gets that much better.