When you're tired of the same old sushi, paella, pudding, and pilaf, head over to Takara in Japantown, where everybody's favorite grain is served in a delectable variety of preparations seldom encountered in cosmopolitan San Francisco. The restaurant's iron-pot rice, for instance, is cooked inside a big, rustic contraption with herbs, seasonings, and crabmeat; the simple, elemental flavors of rice and crustacean make for a pure and harmonious treat. In ochazuke, half a dozen filets of dreamy-creamy tuna sashimi are served atop a bed of succulent, tea-soaked rice every bit as comforting as jook or polenta. Our favorite dish, though, is chirashi, in which a lacquered box is half-filled with vinegared rice, strewn with delicate threads of seaweed, and laden to the brim with as luscious a selection of tuna, yellowtail, salmon, and halibut as you can get around town. Good deep-fried rice cakes too!