【Reading】きんしたまご

【English Name】Kinshi Tamago (Shredded Egg Crepe)

Kinshi-tamago refers to thinly fried egg cut into fine thread-like strips, and it was named after "nishiki no ito" (threads of brocade) because its vivid golden color brings silk threads to mind.

Its connection with sushi is strong, and it has become an inseparable presence as a color accent for chirashi-zushi. Furthermore, it is used in chakin-zushi, which wraps vinegared rice in thin fried egg, and in fukusa-zushi, made into a pouch shape. In futomaki matsuri-zushi, a local dish of Chiba Prefecture, it has the unique feature of being rolled in thin fried egg instead of nori. Because nori was difficult for farmers to obtain, it is said to have begun with substituting eggs from the chickens they raised themselves.

Note that in the world of Edomae sushi, the term "usuyaki-tamago" (thin fried egg) refers to a thinly finished version of the tamago-yaki unique to sushi restaurants, made by mixing in ground seafood paste, and it differs from the ordinary thin fried egg made at home. There were also shops that crafted this Edomae-style thin egg into nigiri using techniques such as kuragake or kashiwa-zuke, but the opportunity to encounter such shops today has markedly decreased.

Today, food manufacturers sell kinshi-tamago sheets and pre-cut pack products, and they are also widely used in the food-service industry.