They were all there waiting for the longest omurice in the world to be made on the University of Seoul campus. Omurice, a relatively simple dish made of fried rice wrapped in a thin sheet of fried egg, is believed to have originated in Japan.
The particular one made that day reached 101.8 meters in length; it was long enough to serve up to 2,000 people. Making this omurice involved a set of other large numbers; it took 4 hours for 60 students to make it, with 4 million won worth of ingredients including 4,000 eggs, 240 kilograms of rice, 120 kilograms of Kimchi and 40 kilograms of carrots. After Kim Deok-eun, director of the Korea Record Institute, a Korean consulting agency for Guinness World Records, confirmed the length, it was distributed on a massive number of plates to students and neighbors.
“I’m so glad to see this big event happening on campus especially as we don`t have many events during the school year,” Kwon Mi-ji, a sophomore at the Department of English Literature and Language, said. “The omurice is really delicious and I want to see something like this more often on campus.”
Guests present on campus included children from nearby nursery schools and the elderly from nursing homes. Offering something to neighboring communities means something to the University of Seoul as most of the school funds come from taxes paid by Seoul citizens to the city government.
The omurice making event is particularly remarkable as it was planned and carried out by students. U-biz, a university club established last year to launch a venture business, last month started looking for a way to promote the club during the university club festival.
It soon realized making the longest omurice would not only gain attention from school and beyond, but also offer something to students and neighboring Seoul citizens. The plan picked up momentum rapidly as Choi Guen-hui, head of the office of student affairs encouraged them to develop the idea and later decided to support the event by donating some of the profits from running the cafeterias.
These profits were supposed to be returned to students and had been spent in the form of free dinners during exam periods over the past few years. Other help came from the student council which provided most of the volunteers. Guinness World Records verification will take about 3 to 6 months and, if it passes, the omurice would be the eleventh record from Korea to be included among Guinness World Records.
Kong Jun-wan Reporter
junwan@uos.ac.kr