홋쿄쿠세이(北極星)

홋쿄쿠세이(北極星)는 일본의 양식을 대표하는 메뉴 '오므라이스'를 처음 만든 가게로 1922년 창업하였다. 오므라이스는 기름으로 볶은 밥을 케첩 등으로 맛을 내 얇게 구운 계란으로 감싼 요리로, 현재는 일본 전국에서 먹을 수 있는 간판 양식요리이다. 가장 베이직한 가늘게 썬 닭고기가 들어간 케첩맛의 볶음밥 '치킨라이스'를 구운 계란으로 감싼 '치킨 오므라이스'를 비롯하여, '하야시 오므라이스', '버섯 오므라이스' 등 10종류 이상의 메뉴가 있다.

Omu-rice

One item on Western-style menus was omu-rice (rice omelettes)—a dish that became well-known in Japan for its golden yellow egg wrap and bright red ketchup or tomato sauce. According to one story, omu-rice was a dish born in Osaka in 1925. A restaurant customer ordered the same thing daily: an omelette with rice. The cook decided to enliven the dish accenting the rice with ketchup and wrapping it in a thinly fried omelette. The delighted customer asked what the dish was, to which the chef apparently replied: “It’s an omelette with rice… omu-rice!” The episode in question took place at Hokkyokusei, a pioneering Western-style restaurant that opened in 1922. Today, the establishment maintains the calm atmosphere of an upper-scale Japanese restaurant, even as it stands in the midst of Osaka’s boisterous Minami shopping district. It includes floor seating on tatami (straw mats) overlooking a Japanese garden, and offers a chance to experience the oft-romanticized Taisho-era atmosphere blending East and West that flourished when the omu-rice dish was first created.