Home-style ── Yoshoku (Japanese Western-style dishes)
Toruko Raisu
Turkey rice — pilaf, napolitan-style spaghetti, and a pork cutlet on one plate
Pilaf, napolitan-style spaghetti, and a pork cutlet plated together, a yoshoku dish from Nagasaki. Its name has several competing origin stories, from a Turkish rice dish to the plate's three colors.
- Origin: Nagasaki City, Nagasaki
- Rice dishes
- About 970 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
On a single plate, ketchup-flavored pilaf, napolitan-style spaghetti, and a pork cutlet sit side by side. Rice, noodles, and meat could each be a dish on their own, but here they're arranged so all three can be tasted in one sitting. Sauce or curry powder is often used for extra fragrance, making for a colorful plate that's also said to be prized for how it looks.
How it's made
The usual method is to prepare pilaf, spaghetti, and a cutlet separately, then plate all three together on one dish. Many shops season the pilaf with ketchup or curry powder, toss the spaghetti with ketchup in the napolitan style, and fry the cutlet on its own before adding it. The order and arrangement on the plate are said to vary by shop, giving each restaurant its own signature layout.
Why it took this shape
The name's origin has more than one story: that it comes from pilav, a Turkish rice dish; that it's named after a restaurant that once served it; that it's a corruption of 'tricolore,' referring to the plate's three colors; or that it was named for Turkey as a country that geographically sits between East and West, echoing a plate that weaves together dishes from both — and the city's own tourism site declines to settle on any single one.
Before you go
- How to shop at a supermarketHow to choose prepared foods, sashimi, and packaged sushi, when discount stickers tend to appear, region-only specialties, buying by weight, the checkout and bagging flow, and sampling etiquette at a local supermarket.
- Food for Obon and the harvest moon (tsukimi)A guide to the meat-free shojin ryori and somen served at Obon, and the tsukimi dango offered on the night of the harvest moon.
- What to know if you have dietary restrictionsHow allergen labeling works, where fish-based dashi, pork, and alcohol turn up, and phrases for checking with staff.
Dishes in the same style
- Chikin RaisuRice fried with chicken, onion, and ketchup. Said to have started as omurice's filling before being served on its own, without the egg wrapper.
- DoriaButter rice topped with shrimp in cream, covered in white sauce and cheese and baked. Said to have been improvised at a Yokohama hotel for a guest who wasn't feeling well.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Nagasaki
- ArumadoA hard-boiled egg dyed pink is wrapped in fish paste and steamed into a kamaboko log that shows a pink-rimmed cross-section when cut — a Hirado specialty, with kin dishes called "arimado" in Sasebo and "ryugan" in Nagasaki.
- Goto UdonA hand-pulled noodle from Shinkamigoto, Nagasaki. Its technique is thought to trace back to envoys returning from Tang China, and the island's camellia oil is worked into the dough for a smooth, elastic bite.
- HanahajikiCucumber, carrot, deep-fried tofu, and shrimp are cut into strips and fanned out on a plate to be dipped in a hot mustard vinegar-miso — a dish from Isahaya said to be named for how the mustard "flicks the nose," traditionally served at Buddhist memorial services.
- HatoshiShrimp and squid paste sandwiched in bread and deep-fried, a Nagasaki specialty said to have arrived from China in the Meiji era, growing from a shippoku banquet course into a food loved across the city.
- HikadoFish or chicken and vegetables like daikon and carrot are diced fine and simmered, thickened at the end with grated sweet potato — said to originate in a meat stew eaten by Portuguese residents of Nagasaki, its name from the Portuguese word for "minced."
- HikitoshiChicken raised at home is butchered for this Iki hot pot, typically enriched with iki-doufu, a rich local tofu, and firm-boiled somen — said to have begun as a dish served to guests in the inner parlor, its name tracing to "hiki-toshi," leading a guest through.