There are certain meats you can find at restaurants in Japan that aren’t exactly common in the western world. Whale is the one most likely to get foreign visitors up in arms, but with some pretty extensive searching, you can also find establishments serving up monkey and frog.

That isn’t to say Japanese culinary/cultural values are completely different from those of Europeans and North Americans. For example, people in Japan don’t really believe in turning dogs into food.

But turning food into a dog? That’s something the whole world can get behind.

This adorable dish is actually omuraisu, or a rice omelet. Omuraisu is one of a number of dishes, such as hamburger steaks and Napolitan spaghetti, that get classified as “western food” in Japan, despite the fact that they bear only passing resemblances to actual western cooking.

Omuraisu consists of rice cooked with ketchup and chicken, and often sliced mushrooms as well. The whole thing gets wrapped in egg, and despite the American image of omelets as breakfast food, omuraisu is a popular dish for lunch or dinner in Japan.

The simple, sweet flavor of omuraisu, plus the fact that you can just plow into it with a spoon, makes the dish a big hit with Japanese kids. Often, loving parents will spruce the dish up by writing their child’s name in ketchup on top of the omelet.

Cute as that may be though, it can’t hold a candle to this omuraisu sculpture of a corgi tucked into a blanket.

The body is made up of two types of rice, one with ketchup and one without. The ears are pretty clearly little pieces of ham, and the eyes look to be patches of seaweed. And the nose…well the nose looks like a jellybean, or maybe a chocolate covered peanut. Neither one is generally considered to go well with omuraisu, but with all the sweetness radiating from the adorable design, we doubt one little piece of candy is going to make that big a difference.

Source: Toychan Net

Top image: Twitter

Insert images: Exblog, FC2