Product information
About
Chicken, bamboo shoot and spring onion sit in a sweet-salty soy sauce over Japanese short-grain rice. If teriyaki chicken from the supermarket is your reference point you are in the right family: sweet soy, savoury with it, and no chilli at all. The rice is already in the box, so it is about a minute and a half in most Australian microwaves, with nothing to add and nothing to wash up. At 249 g it is a light lunch rather than a full dinner.
On the pack it reads 炭火焼き風とり丼: sumibiyaki-fu toridon.
What you're getting
- Pay attention to the sauce rather than the chicken. It is the part that carries the bowl. Reviewers in Japan call it rich rather than delicate, and sweet-salty rather than sweet. This is an everyday Japanese supermarket bowl, not a premium line.
- Japanese reviewers find the chicken tender. There is bamboo shoot and spring onion through it, and the most repeated complaint in Japan is that there is not much chicken for the amount of rice: while others simply find the whole box small.
- Read "charcoal-grilled" as a style, not a method. 風 means -style, and Marumiya never claims a grilling step, the charcoal character is built into the sauce. If you are picturing a charcoal-chicken shop you will not find it: Japanese reviewers who went looking for smoke said it tasted like tinned yakitori, the supermarket tin of grilled chicken in sweet soy, rather than anything off a grill.
- It is one modest serve, 249 g, and 160 g of that is the rice. A hungry adult in Japan eats two of them. Treat one as a light lunch, and plan on something alongside it if you are properly hungry.
- Allergens: contains wheat, soy and chicken. Chicken is on there because Japan asks for it, not because it is an Australian allergen. Read the pack's own label before you rely on ours.
The rice is included: this is a whole meal in one box, not a sauce sachet to pour over rice you cook yourself. It keeps in the cupboard rather than the fridge: the rice is aseptically packed and the topping is sealed and heat-sterilised. The pack prints four microwave times: take the 1000 W one, about a minute and a half, since most Australian microwaves are 800 W or more and the 500 W and 600 W lines are the slow ones. Peel the film lid right off the rice tray, open the sealed topping pouch and tip it over, then rest the lid loosely back on top: the tray is the only part that goes in the microwave, and sealed shut it can burst while uncovered it spatters. It comes out very hot, so lift it with a tea towel.
Ingredients
The maker's ingredient list, translated from the Japanese pack. Anything after the break is an additive — the Japanese label lists those separately.
Rice: Japanese short-grain rice (product of Japan), acidity regulator.
Topping: chicken, vegetables (bamboo shoot, spring onion), sugar, chicken fat, soy sauce, salt, thickener (modified starch), flavour enhancer (amino acids), caramel colour, emulsifier, flavouring.
The printed label on the pack is always the authority on ingredients and allergens, not this page — please read it in full before you rely on our summary. If you are unsure about an ingredient, contact us.
Allergens
The maker declares:
- Allergens
-
- Wheat
- Soy
- Dietary notes
-
Chicken is in it as meat and again as chicken fat, both on Marumiya's own ingredient list.
The printed label on the pack is always the authority on ingredients and allergens, not this page — please read it in full before you rely on our summary. If you are unsure about an ingredient, contact us.
Details
- Maker
- Marumiya
- Prefecture
- Tokyo
- Made in
- Japan
- Net contents
- One box: 249 g, of which 160 g is rice and 89 g is the chicken topping
Our guide
How to eat it
- Peel the film lid right off the rice tray first: that tray is the only thing that goes in the microwave.
- Open the sealed topping pouch, tip it over the rice, level it out, then rest the peeled lid loosely back on top. That is the maker's own order: sealed shut the tray can burst, uncovered the contents can spatter.
- Set the time from your microwave's wattage: about a minute and a half at 1000 W, two and a half minutes at 600 W, three minutes at 500 W, one minute at 1500 W. Most Australian microwaves run at 800 W or more, so the shorter times are the ones you want. Marumiya rules out ovens and oven-toasters entirely.
Good to know
- No microwave: stand the unopened rice tray in boiling water for about fifteen minutes with the pot lid off, and the sealed topping pouch for about five.
- It lives in the cupboard rather than the fridge, but it comes out very hot: lift it with a tea towel and give it a moment before you start. Once opened, both parts have to be used up.
In their own words
What Japanese buyers say
- What they like
The sauce is delicious.
タレが美味しい
from monolog
- What they grumble about
So little meat!
肉少なっ！
- What they like
The meat is tender and the sauce carries a charcoal aroma — delicious.
お肉が柔らかく、炭火の香りが乗っているタレが美味しい
- What they grumble about
Just canned yakitori on top. There's a bit of veg, but it was no different from putting canned yakitori on rice — that quality.
焼き鳥缶を載せただけ 野菜が少し入っていますが、焼き鳥缶を載せるのと変わらず、そのクオリティでした。
- What they like
Marumiya's rice bowls of this type never miss. Done in the microwave, no washing up — perfect. The taste, perfect too.
丸美屋の、このタイプのご飯はハズレが無い。レンジで完結して洗い物も出ないし、完璧。味も、完璧。
from monolog
- What they like
Perfect for a light lunch.
軽い昼食に最適。
from monolog
- What they grumble about
It's a bit less than a small gyudon, so a big eater polishes off about two.
牛丼の小盛りよりちょっと少ないくらいの量なので、食べる人は２つくらいペロンチョですね。
- What they like
The sweet-salty sauce really is good, I'll give it that.
確かに甘辛ダレでうまいね。
- What they like
I buy it for my son living alone. It's easy and tastes really good, so I buy and send it every time.
一人暮らしの息子に買っています。簡単だし味が凄く美味しいので毎回買って送っています。
from monolog
- What they grumble about
The rice really is on the small side.
ご飯少ないんだよなぁ
from monolog
- What they like
It keeps at room temperature, so it doubles as disaster-stockpile food.
常温で保管できるので、災害時の備蓄食品にもなる
- What they grumble about
Microwaving is easy and the taste is so-so — a pass mark, I'd say.
レンチンは楽で味もそこそこまぁ及第点って感じです
from monolog
- What they like
My child can make it himself easily, so I keep it stocked.
子供が自分で簡単に作れるのでストックしています。
from monolog
- What they like
It smells like canned yakitori — the sort of thing that pleases everyone.
焼き鳥の缶詰みたいな香りで、万人受けそうな感じでした。
- What they grumble about
The meat was tender and the seasoning good and tasty, but the meat is a bit sparse relative to the rice.
お肉も柔らかく、味付けもよくて美味しかったのですが、ちょっとご飯に対してお肉少ないかなぁ。
- What they like
No side dish needed — it's a real help.
おかずいらずで重宝してます
from monolog
- What they grumble about
The container gets very hot — please be careful.
容器がかなり熱いので気を付けてください。
Our tip: Lift it out with a tea towel and give it a minute before you start.
- What they like
A takikomi-gohan with a new yakitori flavour.
焼き鳥味が新しい炊き込みご飯
from monolog
Real quotes from Japanese review sites, translated by us. We show no star rating from those sites.
The maker
Where it comes from
- Marumiya
- Tokyo
- Founded 1927
Marumiya started in 1927 as a food research laboratory in Tokyo, and its first product was a furikake: the dry seasoning you shake over a bowl of rice. That is still what the name means to most people in Japan. Its furikake Noritama, launched in 1960, is still on supermarket shelves there.
Rice is the thread through everything the company has made since. It moved into sealed-pouch cooking in 1970, and from 1999 began building meals around aseptically packed rice: sealed and heat-sterilised so a cooked bowl of rice keeps in a cupboard. This bowl is that idea, twenty-odd years on.
The company is still in Suginami, in western Tokyo. This particular bowl is put together further north, at a plant in Shibata, Niigata: rice country, on a line that runs packed rice and sealed pouches side by side.
Product facts here are checked against the maker's own page: marumiya.co.jp (opens in a new tab)
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Marumiya Charcoal-Style Chicken Rice Bowl — 249g
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