Chazuke

Chazuke, or o-chazuke, is a light rice dish popular in Japan. As "cha" indicates tea in Japanese, hot green tea is simply poured over steamed rice and various toppings. Leftover steamed rice is often used for this dish. There are so many choices of the toppings, and popular ones are flakes of grilled salted salmon, umeboshi (pickled sour plums), strips of nori (dried seaweed), salty pickles, and so on. It's good to use salty and flavorful toppings on rice since they add flavor to the tea. Packages of dry chazuke seasoning mixes are also available at Asian grocery stores.