It is a very popular seafood rice bowl in Japan, especially in the north. Oh, first I have to explain what it means to eat out of a rice bowl. In Japan, steamed rice is the main source of carbs and protein in each of the three main meals.
Steamed rice is a very convenient food. Since it doesn’t have a strong flavor on its own, it goes well with any fish, meat, vegetable, or other dish. So, we Japanese put that meat or fish on top of rice in a rice bowl. This is one of the first fast foods that came from Japan.
Some US cities have a place called “Yoshinoya” that sells beef rice bowls.
Have you ever seen a sea urchin at the beach or in a store that sells seafood?
It looks like a hedgehog or chestnut with a spiky shell, but inside the spiky shell, you can find a lot of yellow or orange gonads, which the Japanese love to eat.
Since the number of sea urchins has slowly gone down over the past few decades, they are no longer cheap enough to be used as fast food. Now, a bowl of sea urchin rice costs more than 3000yen, which is about $25. However, in a seaside village in Aomori prefecture, you can get it for a reasonable price.
Small restaurants in the area usually have sea urchin rice bowls on the menu. It has a lot of fresh sea urchins and costs less than 1500 yen.
One of the best-known small restaurants in Sai village is Nuidou syokudou.
You can get a seafood set with a sea urchin rice bowl for 1500 yen, and you’ll be surprised to find more than twice as much sea urchin gonad on the rice bowl as you usually get in a sushi bar in a big Japanese city.
