For many Japanese people, white rice is not just one dish placed beside the others. Especially in a traditional Japanese meal, rice is the center of the whole meal.
Imagine that you have grilled fish, simmered vegetables, miso soup, and pickles in front of you. Even if all of these dishes are delicious and there is enough food to fill your stomach, the meal may still feel incomplete without rice. You have eaten many things, but somehow you may not feel that you have properly had a meal.
In Japan, it feels more natural to eat rice and side dishes alternately than to continue eating only the side dishes. You take a bite of grilled fish, and then a bite of rice. You eat some simmered vegetables, and then return to the rice again. By repeating this, the separate dishes begin to feel like parts of one complete meal.
White rice is not simply there to balance strong or salty flavors. Most Japanese people do not consciously think about it in this way while eating. It is more like the bite feels complete when rice comes after the side dish. The side dish and the rice feel like two parts of the same bite.
The satisfaction that comes from eating rice is also not only about feeling full. Warm rice gives a kind of calm feeling that seems to spread through the body. It can make you feel, “Now I have eaten a proper meal.”
This feeling is probably connected to the meals Japanese people have eaten since childhood. Rice is placed in front of you, with miso soup beside it. Around them are fish, vegetables, pickles, or other small dishes. After seeing and eating this kind of meal again and again, it becomes the basic shape of a meal in your mind.
Rice, miso soup, and pickles may not feel like a luxurious meal. You may still wish there were some fish or meat. However, even with only these three things, the meal is simple but complete. On the other hand, several good Japanese side dishes without rice can still leave a strange feeling that something important is missing.
White rice can also give this calm feeling even when there are no side dishes. A good example is an onigiri, or rice ball. Even plain rice can give the feeling that you have eaten something real and satisfying. If there is a little kombu, salted salmon, or pickled plum with it, the feeling becomes even stronger.
Of course, this does not mean that modern Japanese people need rice with every meal. Bread and soup can make a complete breakfast. Pasta, sandwiches, and many other kinds of meals are also completely normal in Japan now. Japanese people do not feel that rice must be added to these meals.
Rice becomes especially important when the meal is built around Japanese dishes that are normally eaten with rice, such as grilled fish, simmered vegetables, miso soup, and pickles. In this kind of meal, rice goes with each side dish and connects them into one meal.
For many Japanese people, rice is more than a carbohydrate. It gives the meal a center and creates the calm feeling that says, “Yes, now I have properly eaten.”