This powder makes a delicious, rich, savory demi-glace sauce that’s full of umami. It has a beefy taste like gravy, but also has tomatoes in it.
It’s the Korean version of Japanese hayashi rice sauce, which is part of Japanese yōshoku cuisine, Japanese/Western fusion food developed in the late 1800s. Curried rice was also invented around this time, and hayashi rice was invented as a milder, gentler Western-style dish. With rice and a beefy sauce full of vegetables, it’s a satisfying, nutritious, one-bowl meal.
When it came to Korea, the word hiyashi was shortened to just “hi” and we call the dish “hi-rice.”
In Korea the most popular brand of hi-rice sauce powder is made by Ottogi, which comes in a vibrant yellow package. According to their website there are 2 possible origins to the name “Hiyashi.” One idea is that it’s a Japanese word taken from the English “hashed beef,” which is where they got the idea for this dish. The other theory is that it was invented by an importer named Yuteki Hayashi who had access to a lot of Western ingredients and came up with the hiyashi dish.
