(Dutch) Taco Rice

Name: (Dutch) Taco Rice
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 520 ml rice (4 coffee cups); 400 g minced meat; 2 small tomatoes; 200 g chopped iceberg lettuce; shredded cheese; 3 onions; 10 tablespoons curry ketchup (recommended: Hela brand); 2 tablespoons oyster or Worcestershire sauce (optional)

LachaMatte @lachamatte

Taco Rice (タコライス) is one of the most famous recipes from Okinawa. It is also very interesting as it is a fusion recipe of a fusion cuisine, being a Japanese variant of a classic Tex-Mex recipe: Tacos. In style with this bizarre fusion chain, I will present to you my own Dutch variant on this recipe.

Since the Second World War, the USA has installed quite a lot of military bases in Japan, especially Okinawa. This brought quite an American influence to the region. Allegedly, this recipe was created by a restaurant close to one of those military bases who wanted to create a dish that combined one of the most popular American foods, tacos, and the most popular food in Japan, rice. Basically swapping the taco shell with rice.

When you search for taco rice recipes online, you will basically find the same recipe but with variations in one part: the seasoning for the meat. There are 2 ways the meat in taco rice is seasoned, either with traditional taco seasoning or with Japanese seasoning, and then some recipes mix those 2 ways. The reason for this is that traditional taco seasoning is not readily available in Japan, so Japanese people outside of Okinawa had to find their own way to make Taco Rice. The Japanese type of seasoning I have learned goes like this: 4 tablespoons ketchup, 2 tablespoons oyster sauce, 1 tablespoon curry powder.

This Japanese seasoning reminded me a lot of Dutch Curry Ketchup, which is the way the recipe is presented here.

LachaMatte @lachamatte

This Japanese seasoning reminded me a lot of Dutch Curry Ketchup, which is the way the recipe is presented here.

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Ingredients

4 servings

520 mlrice (4 coffee cups)
400 gminced meat
2small tomatoes
200 gchopped iceberg lettuce
shredded cheese
3onions
10 tablespoonscurry ketchup (recommended: Hela brand)
2 tablespoonsoyster or Worcestershire sauce (optional)

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Steps

1

Prepare 4 cups of rice, preferably in a rice
cooker.
2

Cut the onions in half rings. Cut the tomatoes in cubes.
3

Add minced meat in a saucepan and bake till it’s not pink anymore.
4

Add onions to the meat till they become gold.
5

Add the seasoning to the meat and onions and mix well. Cook for a couple of minutes.
6

Prepare each plate with the ingredients in the following order: rice, meat with onions, cheese, lettuce, and tomato. This way the cheese will
melt due to the heat of the meat.