Okomé

The Japanese typically eat a short-grained rice that has been hulled, washed, and then boiled in unseasoned water. Rice is important to the Japanese, and they have many words for it. Gohan means “cooked rice” or “meal”; okomé means “uncooked rice.” The hulls of processed rice are crushed into a powder called nuka, which is used to pickle and preserve certain foods. The word for unhulled rice is gen mai. The Japanese also steam hulled, glutinous rice called mochi-gomé to make various dishes, most famous of which is the rice taffy known as omochi.