A rice cracker is an East Asian cracker made from bleached or unbleached rice flour. Many regional varieties exist, though most are fried or baked and puffed and/or brushed with soy sauce or vinegar to create a smooth texture. Some may also be wrapped in seaweed.
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Rice crackers are thought to have originated during China's Han dynasty (c. 202 BC). Later, during the Tang dynasty, there are records of senbei being served to houseguests as a token of courtesy. [1] In Japan, they were popularized during the Edo period. [2] The Japanese Soka senbei (made in Soka City, Saitama Prefecture) is widely considered to be the first modern rice cracker. [3] [4]
Rice crackers are traditionally served with soup or salad, along with green tea and/ or alcoholic beverages. [5] In the western world, they are often eaten as a snack food in trail mixes along with ingredients such as wasabi peas, nuts, dried and salted edamame, and sesame sticks.
Rice crackers are produced in several varieties and shapes. Some of the most popular are listed below. [6] [7]
A cracker is a flat, dry baked biscuit typically made with flour. Flavorings or seasonings, such as salt, herbs, seeds, or cheese, may be added to the dough or sprinkled on top before baking. Crackers are often branded as a nutritious and convenient way to consume a staple food or cereal grain.
Senbei are a type of Japanese rice cracker. They come in various shapes, sizes, and flavors, usually savory but sometimes sweet. Senbei are often eaten with green tea as a casual snack and offered to visiting house guests as a courtesy refreshment.
A rice cake may be any kind of food item made from rice that has been shaped, condensed, or otherwise combined into a single object. A wide variety of rice cakes exist in many different cultures in which rice is eaten. Common variations include cakes made with rice flour, those made from ground rice, and those made from whole grains of rice compressed together or combined with some other binding substance.
In Japan, it is customary to serve alcoholic drinks with snacks called sakana, shukō, or otsumami (お摘み). These are usually quite salty and served in relatively small portions. Sakana are usually more substantial than tapas, although they are not considered a meal since they are not accompanied by rice. Traditionally, the Japanese regarded sake, which is made from rice, as a substitute for white rice served in a standard Japanese meal, and as a result some Japanese do not eat rice and drink alcohol simultaneously.
Lontong is an Indonesian dish made of compressed rice cake in the form of a cylinder wrapped inside a banana leaf, commonly found in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Rice is rolled inside a banana leaf and boiled, then cut into small cakes as a staple food replacement for steamed rice. The texture is similar to that of ketupat, with the difference being that the ketupat container is made from woven janur fronds, while lontong uses banana leaf instead.
Javanese cuisine is the cuisine of Javanese people, a major ethnic group in Indonesia, more precisely the province of Central Java, Yogyakarta and East Java.
Sundanese cuisine is the cuisine of the Sundanese people of Western Java, and Banten, Indonesia. It is one of the most popular foods in Indonesia. Sundanese food is characterised by its freshness; the famous lalab eaten with sambal and also karedok demonstrate the Sundanese fondness for fresh raw vegetables. Unlike the rich and spicy taste, infused with coconut milk and curry of Minangkabau cuisine, the Sundanese cuisine displays the simple and clear taste; ranged from savoury salty, fresh sourness, mild sweetness, to hot and spicy.
Kemplang is an Indonesian traditional savory fish cracker snack commonly found in southern parts of Sumatra, Indonesia. Kemplang crackers are commonly made of ikan tenggiri (wahoo) or any type of Spanish mackerel, mixed with tapioca starch and other flavorings, sun-dried and then grilled or fried.
Rengginang or ranginang is a variety of Indonesian thick rice crackers, made from cooked glutinous sticky rice and seasoned with spices, made into a flat and rounded shape, and then sun-dried. The sun-dried rengginang is deep-fried with ample cooking oil to produce a crispy rice cracker.
Betawi cuisine is rich, diverse and eclectic, in part because the Betawi people that create them were composed from numbers of regional immigrants that came from various places in the Indonesian archipelago, as well as Chinese, Indian, Arab, and European traders, visitors and immigrants that were attracted to the port city of Batavia since centuries ago.
Arare is a type of bite-sized Japanese cracker made from glutinous rice and flavored with soy sauce. The size and shapes are what distinguish arare from senbei. The name is chosen to evoke hailstones – smaller arare are similar in size and shape to hailstones, though others can vary significantly in size, flavor and shape. Arare is also called kakimochi or mochi crunch in Hawaii where it was introduced in the 1900s.
Krupuk (Javanese) is a cracker made from starch or animal skin and other ingredients that serve as flavouring. Most krupuk are deep fried, while some others are grilled or hot sand fried. They are popular snacks in maritime Southeast Asia, most closely associated with the culinary traditions of Indonesia, in particular Javanese cuisine. It is a ubiquitous staple in its country of origin and has spread to other countries either via the migration of diaspora populations or exports.
Prawn crackers are a deep-fried snack made from starch and prawn. They are a common snack food in Southeast Asian cuisine, but they are most closely associated with Indonesia. They have also been adapted into East Asian cuisines, where the similar Japanese kappa ebisen (かっぱえびせん) and Korean saeukkang are popular snacks.
Norimaki (海苔巻) are various Japanese dishes wrapped with nori seaweed, most commonly a kind of sushi, makizushi (巻き寿司).
A snack is a small portion of food generally eaten between meals. A snack is often less than 200 calories, but this can vary. Snacks come in a variety of forms including packaged snack foods and other processed foods, as well as items made from fresh ingredients at home.