Trends of Japan

Sushi...Sushi...Sushi

2009-09-01T01:06:00.000-07:00

Nori-maki with tuna.
Others: Nigiri-zushi with toppings of
tuna, sea bass, cuttlefish, ark shell, small sea bream, prawn, anago eel, and omelet.

Sushi has become a favorite food throughout the world, although many people still have never tried it. How about you? Perhaps you are not yet a fan, but once you learn more, maybe you will give it a try.

2009-09-01T00:52:00.000-07:00

An “Italian” Meal Not Found in Italy

Spaghetti Napolitan

Cuisine from the West and other parts of the world has made in roads in the Japanese kitchen.

But the Japanese tend to change things a bit to suit their taste preferences, creating some unique crossover recipes. There are, for example, kare raisu (curry and rice), korokke (croquette), and omuraisu (fried seasoned rice wrapped in a thin omelet). These pages introduce a Western/Japanese hybrid called spaghetti napolitan.

Close to the heart of Tokyo is the Jimbocho district. Nestled in among the shops selling old books is a nice spot to eat, called Sabor (Spanish for “taste”). Sabor serves the type of light meals you will find in a kissaten coffee shop, and during the lunch hour the place is often crowded with students and office workers. Many come for the spaghetti napolitan. The spaghetti, a little on the thick side, is boiled and then fried lightly with small pieces of ham, onion, green pepper and mushrooms. It has a nice tomato color. Sabor first opened its doors in 1955, and spaghetti napolitan has been a popular item on the menu since Day 1. On some days, as many as 200 customers ask for it.

The ingredients and recipe differ a little from chef to chef, but one ingredient that is always present is ketchup. Sabor’s cook fries the spaghetti and chopped ingredients, then stirs in a sauce made from a boiled mix of flavorful vegetables, ketchup and tomato purée. When it is ready for the table, on goes a sprinkling of Tabasco pepper sauce and powdered cheese. The spicy pepper and thick cheese flavor bring out the sweet tang of the thick ketchup sauce coating the soft spaghetti.

Soft spaghetti and ketchup—hardly a typical Italian pasta dish, you might say, and you would be right. The recipe comes not from Naples but from Yokohama, Japan.

Very soon after World War II, a chef at a Yokohama hotel came up with the idea of frying boiled spaghetti with tomato sauce and bits of food like ham and green pepper. Tomato sauce is said to have come originally from the Italian city of Naples, and that explains the name, spaghetti napolitan. It could be that, when the recipe spread to ordinary restaurants, it became common to add the ketchup. It is a fairly easy meal to make, and it quickly caught on as a light meal in kissaten coffee shops, and in the home.

Authentic Italian cuisine made its appearance in Japan beginning around the 1970s, and the Japanese have come to appreciate the real thing. But they have certainly not turned their backs on that upstart, spaghetti napolitan. The middle-aged and older keep coming back to it, year after year, and the younger generations see it as one meal option in convenience stores, ready-to-eat, packed in a plastic container. Few Japanese can resist the ketchupy flavor—it whets their appetite and reminds them of the good times they have had, eating this not-from-Naples pasta.

Written by Otani Hiromi, food journalist Photos by Kawada Masahiro

Soy Sauce Desserts

2009-08-26T22:38:00.000-07:00

Sweet Uses for Salty Condiment

Soy sauce is a versatile traditional condiment used in a wide range of Japanese dishes. Made by slowly fermenting and aging soybeans, it has a rich flavor and distinctive aroma. Although it has a famously salty taste, chocolate and other sweets flavored with soy sauce have hit the market and are enjoying something of a boom. These treats have a flavor that is best described as being “salty-sweet.” The combination of sugar and soy sauce is not unusual in Japanese cuisine, and the innovative use of soy sauce in sweet desserts is garnering many fans.

Established Producers Branch OutKagawa, a prefecture on the island of Shikoku, is dotted with soy sauce breweries, and recently even long-established producers from the region have been putting new soy sauce products on the market. Kamebishi Co., for example, has been in business since 1753. The company’s new product, Soy Chocolat, has stirred considerable interest since going on sale. It combines Belgian chocolate with a light, freeze-dried soy sauce that has been aged for three years. The company also makes several unusual flavors of gelato, including soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, and moromi (unfiltered soy sauce produced during the manufacturing process). It also sells parfaits made with these gelatos, which can be topped with soy sauce-flavored wafers in the style of rice crackers.

Heiwado Shodoshima Crème Caramel.

There is also an experiment underway to spur economic development in rural communities with soy sauce sweets. Shodoshima is a small island that is part of Kagawa Prefecture. In the course of a nationwide campaign to publicize the soy sauce for which it is known, the island initiated a project to develop soy sauce-flavored crème caramel, which has now hit the market. Heiwado Shodoshima Crème Caramel was created through a process of trial and error as the participants in the project attempted to figure out how to preserve the aroma of soy sauce and temper the salty aftertaste. The soy sauce used in the pudding is a low-sodium variety from an established maker founded more than 100 years ago. The product’s reputation grew via the Internet and word of mouth, and at peak periods 5,000 of the crème caramels are ordered in a month.

Soy Sauce for Ice CreamThere are many other kinds of soy sauce confections, including soy sauce specially brewed for use on ice cream. Simply by pouring this sauce over your ice cream, you can enjoy an entirely new flavor. Several companies make this type of sauce, such as Yamakawa Jozo, a soy sauce manufacturer based in Gifu Prefecture. The company’s ice cream sauce has become a big hit among consumers nationwide, who can order it on line. The thick syrup is poured on top of ice cream; when it is mixed in, the ice cream takes on a caramel-like flavor. Another popular production is an ice cream soy sauce made by Yamato Soysauce & Miso Co., a manufacturer established in 1911. With sugar and thick malt syrup for extra sweetness, it is perfect for those who are fond of a rich textured soy sauce flavor.

Nanaotorii Soy Sauce Roll Cake.

Chef Tsujiguchi Hironobu, a renowned pastry chef at a Japanese sweets shop of Waraku Beniya has created the Nanaotorii Soy Sauce Roll Cake, made with a heavy two-year-old soy sauce, a soft spongy dough, and custard cream. The cakes have a delicate soy sauce aroma that, combined with their mild sweetness, yields a subtle taste reminiscent of caramel.

Soy Sauce has become one of essential kitchen items along with Japanese cuisine; it is already a familiar flavor to many people outside Japan. Perhaps soy sauce desserts, too, will one day enjoy the same level of popularity. (October 2008)

Healthy Food

2009-08-26T22:29:00.000-07:00

Vegetables are always one of the most popular choices for people looking to improve their eating habits, and now novel ways of serving and eating vegetables are gaining popularity. From restaurants whose menus focus on specific vegetables to patisseries offering vegetable cakes and other sweet treats, innovative vegetable eating habits are entering the mainstream.

Say Yes to TOMATO

Tomatoes are enjoying a particular boom in popularity. In Japan, tomatoes are often eaten raw in salads, and the most popular varieties have firm flesh and a taste that is more sweet than sour. A wider variety of tomatoes has become available at stores in recent years, such as fruit tomatoes grown to have a higher sugar content, and chefs have been busy devising novel ways for food lovers to enjoy each variety's distinctive flavor and texture.

Céléb de Tomato is a restaurant in Tokyo that has become popular thanks to its commitment to serving "tomato dishes that have never been tasted before." Here patrons can sample a wide range of tomatoes, including green mini tomatoes, milky white tomatoes, and black tomatoes whose sweet taste is complemented by a hint of bitterness. Needless to say, all of the restaurant's dishes - from appetizers to main courses and desserts - incorporate tomatoes in one way or another. Items from the menu include whole tomato salad, fish and meat dishes featuring fresh tomato sauce, and tomato bread. Among the restaurant's popular desserts are the ripe tomato brûlée and the roll cake made with homemade tomato jam.

Healthy Desserts

Calories are always a source of concern when eating sweets and cakes, and this is another area in which vegetables are being used to create delicious, healthy dishes. Pâtisserie Potager is a vegetable confectionery that opened in Tokyo in 2006. The store, which also works to support farmers and provide nutrition education through its products, is based on the novel idea of mixing vegetables into desserts, an experiment that resulted in the creation of unexpected new flavors. One of its specialties, a green sponge cake made with puréed komatsuna (Japanese mustard spinach) sandwiching tomatoes and fresh cream, has been popular ever since the store opened. Other surprising combinations include a cheesecake infused with a purée of green soybeans and two-layer green asparagus and vanilla mousse wrapped in roasted tea sponge cake.

Juices made with raw fruits and vegetables are a popular way for health-conscious consumers to get their daily vegetable intake. Fresh juice stands have become a common sight at major train stations in cities like Tokyo and Osaka. Kale and spinach juice and goya (bitter melon) and guava juice are among the nutrition-packed juices lining the stands' counters, which are popular with commuters, students, and other busy people keen to supplement their diets.

My Amazon

2009-01-20T01:09:00.001-08:00

Food Addict

Chirashi-zushi

2008-12-03T20:28:00.000-08:00

(3 to 4 servings)

Ingredients:

Egg sheets :
egg 2
salt 1/4 teaspoon
sake 2 teaspoons

Beat eggs and mix in salt and sake. Heat and lightly oil frying pan (about 7 inches in diameter). Pour just enough of the egg mixture (a little more than a tablespoon) so that it spreads thinly over the bottom, like a crepe. Cook over a low flame. When the bottom is set, turn the sheet over and cook lightly, being careful not to allow it to burn. Repeat to make several thin sheets. Cut into fine strips after cooling.

Boiled shiitake mushrooms :
dried shiitake mushroom 6
sugar 2 tablespoons
soy sauce 2 1/2 tablespoons (or more)

Place dried shiitake in lukewarm water so that the mushrooms are completely submerged. Soak for 30 minutes. Remove shiitake. Place about 1/2 cup of the water and half the mushrooms in a pot and boil for 8 to 10 minutes until mushrooms are soft.

Add sugar and soy sauce and continue boiling over a low flame until the water nearly evaporates. Slice mushrooms after cooling.

Shrimp :
unshelled shrimp 120 grams
pinch of salt
dash of vinegar

Cook shrimp in water, adding salt and vinegar. Then remove shells and devein. If using prawns or other large shrimp, slice into 2 or 3 thin pieces. The cooked shrimp may be used as is or soaked in the vinegar dressing prepared to make sushi rice.

Beans :
ingen (green beans) or snow peas 6-10
Boil in slightly salted water. Slice diagonally. Snow peas or other pod peas may be used as a substitute.

Nori :
nori (dried seaweed sheets) 1/2 cupcut into thin strips

Kamaboko :
kamaboko (fish cake) 4-6 slices (around 1/4 inch thick)

Ikura :
ikura (salmon caviar) 4 tablespoons

Recipe :
Spread sushi rice on a plate so it's about 2/3-inch thick. Sprinkle nori evenly on top, adding shiitake and strips of eggs sheets. Then scatter shrimp, kamaboko, and ingen, piling ikura in a mound in the middle.

"It's easy and fun!"

Suchi Rice

2008-12-03T20:23:00.000-08:00

Ingredients:

vinegar 1/2 cup
sugar 2 tablespoons
salt 1 teaspoon
rice 2 cups

Dissolve sugar and salt in vinegar and store in a glass container. Cook rice, using equal amounts of rice and water (a little less water than normal to make the rice harder). After the rice is fully cooked, let stand for about 10 minutes.

Empty rice into a large, flat container and sprinkle about half the vinegar dressing. Mix the rice and vinegar with cutting strokes, fanning the rice at the same time to cool quickly. Taste the rice, adding more vinegar to enhance sharpness (the vinegar dressing should be enough for 3 to 4 cups of rice).

Notes:

Most sushi restaurants in Tokyo don't use sugar in the vinegar dressing to bring out the freshness of the raw fish. A slightly milder mixture, though, goes better with sushi prepared at home. In the Kansai region around Osaka and Kyoto, more sugar and salt are used. Use the blend that's just right for you!
Sushi tastes best when you use Japonica-type medium-grain rice and vinegar made from rice or other grains grown in Japan.

Sushi

2008-12-03T20:19:00.000-08:00

Sushi is one of the most popular rice dishes in Japan and is also widely enjoyed in countries around the world. In addition to the nigiri type with slices of raw or cooked fish sitting on top of an oblong sushi rice, there is also the norimaki (sushi roll), where pieces of fish and/or vegetable are rolled with rice in nori (dried seaweed), and chirashi-zushi with a variety of ingredients sitting on top of or mixed with a bed of Sushi rice.

Nigiri-zushi may look simple but are actually quite hard to make, since you can't start over once you start; they require fresh fish sliced to just the right thickness and size and rice that's packed neither too firmly or loosely. Most people have their sushi prepared for them by experienced chefs, either eating out at a sushi restaurant (you can find one in almost any neighborhood in Japan) or having sushi delivered to their homes. The skill of the chef can make a world of difference how good a piece of sushi tastes.

There are types of sushi that can be made at home, too, and it's not unusual to serve them when company's around, such as on festive occasions Chirashi-zushi is one example. They can be as easy to prepare as salads.
Here are recipes for some types of sushi that can be made in a snap. If you can't get a hold of some of the ingredients listed here, don't worry. You don't have to use all of them, and some can be substitute with others that are available where you live.

How To Hold Chopstick ?

2008-12-03T19:54:00.000-08:00

The chopsticks should be placed in the hand in this order:

First, grab both chopsticks with one hand.

Next, line up the chopsticks with the other hand.

Then, shift the first hand to the correct position.

There you go!

Let's practice using the chopsticks:

First, hold the upper chopstick like a pencil, about one-third of the way from its top.

Next, place the second chopstick against your ring finger, holding it with the base of the thumb.

It should be pointing the same way as the first chopstick.

Dora-yaki

2008-11-25T01:23:00.000-08:00

Break open the fluffy pancake and the adzuki bean paste looks delicious. These dora-yaki were made at Usagi-ya, Tokyo. The cartoon character Doraemon, popular throughout Japan, is well known for his craving for dora-yaki.

The cute rabbit (usagi) above the entrance to Usagi-ya invites you inside.

Pancakes containing plenty of egg and a sweetener, filled with soft, simmered adzuki beans that are even sweeter... Grilled a golden brown, dora-yaki owe their delectable fragrance to the syrup or honey mixed in with the dough. The light pancakes blend well with the filling, and the result tastes ever so good as soon as you bite in. The sweet flavor, fit for royalty, tempts you to eat more, and when you are done the hunger pangs are gone for some time.

In Tokyo, perhaps the best place to go for dora-yaki is Usagi-ya, a well-established Japanese confectionary manufacturer in the Ueno district. The owner, Taniguchi Takuya, has run the shop for many years. "I don't think anyone knows where dora-yaki were first made. It was around 1927 that our shop began selling dora-yaki made using today's recipe. It's not even clear where the name dora-yaki comes from. Some say it comes from the shape, which is something like the bronze dora gongs developed in China. Others say that in the old days dora-yaki were grilled on top of the gong itself!"

The Ueno district is still in many ways the friendly downtown neighborhood it was years ago. Here you will find old bakeries offering Japanese confectionaries, specialty products like kintsuba (made by grilling a thin wheat dough wrapped around sweet bean paste) and dango (a glutinous rice flour dough that is kneaded, formed into balls, then steamed). The sweet foods made here are generally quite cheap, and they fill you up well. Most have their origins in the Edo period (1603-1867) when ordinary townsfolk developed their own culture. The recipe for dora-yaki was influenced by that vibrant culture, although the pancake-like exterior obviously has Western roots, indicating that it is a more recent addition to the repertoire of Japanese snacks.

In the Kansai region (Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe and surrounding areas), dora-yaki are called mikasa, named after a mountain in Nara Park in Nara. Mount Mikasa, today a tourist destination, has long been known as an excellent place to view the moon, and the round confectionary featured in this article reminds locals of the full moon above Mount Mikasa.

Today, most dora-yaki are store-bought, but they can be made the same way at home by sandwiching adzuki bean paste between dora-yaki style pancakes. Then you can enjoy them at their best, just off the grill.

Usagi-ya sells them freshly made, still nice and hot. But after a while the outside gets a little hard. "Not a problem," says Taniguchi. "Just heat them in the microwave for five or six seconds, or warm them up a little in a toaster oven. Then they'll taste great again."

Tamago-yaki

2008-11-25T01:09:00.000-08:00

Japanese-style Omelet Sweetened with Sugar and Seasoned with Stock

Kanto-style tamago-yaki, with typical brown braised marks to please the eye. The taste is quite sweet.

The Japanese really like tamago-yaki. It is made by beating chicken eggs, then mixing in a stock that has sugar, soy sauce, salt, and maybe some other seasonings. The mixture is fried and turned over several times while cooking.

Any Japanese person 40 years old or more probably remembers the childhood expression common in the 1960s, "Kyojin, Taiho, tamago-yaki." This was a list of three things kids were sure to like: the Giants, a professional baseball team that kept on winning; Taiho, a sumo grand champion (yokozuna) and sports hero; and omelet, the perfect example of what children liked to eat. Today, people tend to have their own food preferences, but tamago-yaki is still a favorite for everyone, regardless of age. It is very easy to make at home, but oddly enough, no one knows when tamago-yaki was first made.

Chicken eggs were first eaten in Japan in the Edo period (1603-1867). Near the end of the 18th century, a comprehensive book called Manpo Ryori Himitsu-bako (A Treasury of Secret Recipes) was published. The book, also known as Tamago Hyakuchin (A Hundred Unusual Egg Recipes), did not contain any recipe for the Japanese-style omelet we eat today. Another book, Ryori Kanben-shu (A Compendium for Simple Cuisine, published 1806), contained a recipe for a dish that can be considered the ancestor of today's tamago-yaki, though it is a little different. It calls for pieces of fish, prawn or other seafood to be diced to the size of about 1 cm cubes, mixed in beaten eggs with chopped green onions, then fried.

Fukuda Hiroshi has researched the culinary traditions of old Edo (Tokyo during the Edo period), and says that the recipe for the tamago-yaki we eat today was probably first developed around the time the Shogunate fell, in the late 1860s. In the Meiji period, which began in 1868, take-out box lunches sold by restaurants always had pieces of tamago-yaki, boiled fish cake (kamaboko), and mashed sweet potato with sugar added (kinton). Chicken eggs were a luxury in those days, but gradually became part of the diet of working people.

For some reason, the tamago-yaki made in Kansai (Osaka region) does not contain the same seasonings used in Kanto (Tokyo region). Kansai cooks use only a seasoned stock and salt, so the omelet keeps its yellow-egg color. In Kanto they add soy sauce and sugar, so the color of the omelet is darker, and it is easier to give the surface a nice braised look. And of course the taste is different, too — people from Kansai who try Kanto-style tamago-yaki find the sweet taste surprising.

In Japan, the price of chicken eggs hardly rose at all for a couple of decades after World War II. Considered "inflation-proof," they became one of the cheapest foods one could buy.

We asked Yamasaki Mika, who studied cooking at a restaurant with a long tradition in old Tokyo-style cuisine, to make tamago-yaki in the traditional Kanto style. She says the key to giving the omelet a light texture is to keep the pan at the right temperature. The egg mixture contains a fair amount of sugar, which can make it burn easily, but you should keep the heat quite high and fry it quickly. If you use a round frying pan, cook the egg like you would an ordinary omelet, but tap the handle in such a way as to get the egg to roll into a nice shape. Happy cooking!

Tamago-yaki

Ingredients:
10 eggs and 100 cc of broth made from dried bonito flakes and kombu seaweed. Remove the flakes and seaweed, and simmer the broth with 100 cc saké, 5 tablespoons sugar and 2 tablespoons soy sauce.

1 Place an ample amount of oil in a frying pan, and heat well on medium heat. Coat the entire inside of the pan well with oil. (Photos show a special frying pan for making tamago-yaki.)


2 Beat eggs that are at room temperature. Do not beat too much. Mix in warm broth.	3 Pour off excess oil, then pour seven-tenths of the egg mixture into the pan. When the bottom is cooked, use chopsticks to push the egg toward the far side, then tip the pan to make more mixture flow into the bare area.	4 Make a cavity under the hardening egg, then tip the pan to let egg mixture flow into it.
5 When there is no longer any surface liquid, fold in half toward you.		6 Oil the pan bottom at the far half, then slide the egg onto that half. Oil the front half, and pour in the remaining egg mixture.

7 Repeat step 4, making a cavity and letting egg mixture flow into it. Continue frying.	8 Fold in half toward you once more.	9 When both sides are nicely browned, the omelet is ready to serve.

Soba - A Healthy Fast Food

2008-11-25T01:05:00.000-08:00

One way to eat buckwheat noodles is to dip them in a sauce flavored with wasabi, grated daikon radish, and finely sliced green onions.

Japanese people like noodles a lot. Ramen noodles are one favorite, but when we say "noodles," we are probably thinking of udon or soba. Udon noodles contain wheat flour, water and salt. Soba noodles are made by mixing buckwheat and wheat flour with water to make a dough, then kneading it, rolling it out thin, and cutting it into narrow strips.

Buckwheat grows quickly in cool climates, and doesn't need fertile soil. It is sold around the world and is the main ingredient in some local recipes, like the buckwheat crêpes of Normandy, northern France.

In Japan, documents from the Nara period (710-794) tell us how the people used buckwheat in those days—they boiled the grains and ate them like rice, and they used buckwheat flour to make dumplings and unsweetened cakes. When rice harvests were poor, they had buckwheat to depend on.

The soba noodles we know today first appeared in the mid-1500s. They are fun to eat, and by the 1600s people in different parts of Japan were eating them. Those were the days of castle building and urban development, and the bustling city of Edo (present-day Tokyo) was getting close to a population of one million. The construction workers and city folk created a demand for more places to eat out, and roadside stalls and restaurants sprang up to serve them. Some of those places featured steamed soba noodles (mushi-soba), a light meal that quickly became popular. Mushi-soba was made by boiling the noodles, rinsing them quickly in lukewarm water, then steaming them in a wickerwork container. Like soba noodles today, they were served with a flavored dipping sauce.

In Edo, soba noodles were a good snack to eat on an empty stomach, because in those days the people generally ate only two meals a day. Soba was the perfect fast food to fill up on between meals.

Later, soba evolved in different directions to suit a variety of tastes. Two choices are mori-soba (noodles rinsed in chilled water after boiling, then served in a mound in a basket), and kake-soba (noodles in a large bowl with a hot broth poured over them). A more recent variation is tane-mono (noodles with a topping of tempura, deep-fried tofu skin, edible wild plants, duck, etc.)

In homes today, it's common to use ready-made soba noodles that have been dried or frozen to ensure a long shelf life. But more and more people are now making them by hand—it's not easy, but it can be fun changing the recipe or shape a little, then tasting your own variation.

Buckwheat has plenty of vitamins B1 and B2, as well as rutin and choline, and a growing number of people now see it as an excellent health food. Some of the nutrients dissolve and escape into the water, but they are not wasted if you follow the Japanese custom of finishing up the meal by mixing the hot water used to boil the noodles with the dipping sauce, then drinking the mixture. This makes a lot of sense, because the drink tastes good and is nutritious as well.

How to make soba noodles (serves 10)

(1)	In a wooden bowl, mix 800 g buckwheat flour with 200 g wheat flour. Add most of a bowl of 480 ml chilled water. Put the rest to one side.

(2)

Carefully mix the flour and water with your fingers, using slicing movements keeping your fingers straight and pointing downward. Then use your hands to rub the dough around in the bowl. Continue mixing until the moisture is evenly distributed. The dough should be as soft as a baby's earlobe, so add more water if necessary.

(3)	Form the dough into a lump, and then use your palms to knead the outer part of the lump into the interior, letting any air escape.

(4)	Make sure all of the air is out, then form into a ball and smooth out the surface with your hands.

(5)

Sprinkle a little buckwheat flour on a wooden board and a rolling pin. Place the ball of dough on the board, sprinkle flour on it, and then spread it out with your palms to make a disk. Roll it out with the rolling pin, starting at the center and rolling away from you. Place both hands on the pin, and glide them slowly toward the ends of the pin while rolling, to keep the dough at an even thickness.

(6)	Once in a while, sprinkle more buckwheat flour on the dough and rolling pin. After the dough becomes thin, roll it onto the pin, starting at the front. Then roll the dough on the pin, rolling it away from you while gliding your hands left and right along the dough to give it an even thickness.

(7)	Unroll the dough from the rolling pin. Use the pin some more, then roll the dough onto the pin again. Turn it 90 degrees, and then roll it out to make a square 1 mm thick.

(8)

Sprinkle on more flour, fold in half, sprinkle again, and then fold in half again, parallel to the first fold. Lay it so that the long edge faces you, place a board at right angles to the long edge, and use the board as a guide to cut thin strips, starting at one short edge and working toward the other, shifting the guide board slightly after each cut. Sprinkle some flour on the cut noodles as you go.

(9)	Boil plenty of water, then drop in one person's portion, shaking off excess flour and separating the noodles from each other before they fall in the water. Boil vigorously for about 1 min. Quickly rinse in cold water, place in strainer and shake off water, then serve in a mound.

To make the dipping sauce:
In a saucepan, mix flavored stock, soy sauce and mirin (sweet saké) at a ratio of 3:1:1. Mix in sugar as desired, bring to a boil, then cool.

Curry on Rice

2008-11-25T00:58:00.000-08:00

From India to Japan, via Britain

Chicken curry, the most popular menu item at a Tokyo restaurant called Nakamuraya. It is served with a relish such as pickled shallots and mango chutney.

Curry on rice is often prepared in Japanese homes and school kitchens. It's a favorite with almost everyone, probably because curry goes well with rice, the staple food in Japan. Curry on rice is now almost a national dish, along with ramen noodles.

Cooking with curry originated in India, as everyone knows. The British took curry recipes back with them from India around the end of the 1700s, and from England curry spread throughout the world. The recipes gained acceptance as a way to serve meat-flavored with a curried sauce, with rice as a side dish to the meal. Curry powder was first developed and marketed in England in the early 1800s. The powder contains a mixture of different spices, and makes it easy to cook curry-flavored meals in the home.

When curried dishes came to Japan around the end of the 1800s, they were introduced as a type of British cuisine. In those days a meal with curry was a luxury, but the new taste gradually spread to homes and ordinary restaurants in towns and cities. The meal was called by one of two names- raisu karee or karee raisu . The recipe for curry on rice originated in the 1910s, and has remained basically the same since then. The curried sauce, which contains more vegetables than meat and is thickened with flour, is served over rice with a relish (often chopped daikon radish pickled in soy sauce).

Before the war, the military found curry on rice a convenient meal because it can be cooked in large quantities and offers a nutritional balance. Curry on rice only became a common household meal after World War II, thanks to an important development, a mixture of curry spices and flour that could be used for "instant" cooking. The meal is a snap to prepare-just fry the ingredients you want, add water, simmer, then toss in an instant curry bar and dissolve it in the liquid. Curry on rice is easy and cheap to make, which helps explain why it has become regular fare in homes throughout the country.

Curry on rice is not only served in the home-you'll find different types of curried dishes in commercial districts as well. Almost all restaurants have it on the menu, some noodle shops serve both karee udon (curried wheat noodles) and rice with a curry containing bonito-fish broth, and many bread stores sell karee pan (buns with a curried sauce hidden inside).

Restaurants serving curried dishes from India, Thailand, Indonesia and other countries are gaining in popularity, especially among the young. One of these is Nakamuraya, a well-known restaurant that has offered Indian-style curry in Tokyo's Shinjuku district for the last 74 years. In 1927, the founder, Soma Aizo, learned how to make curry from his son-in-law, Rash Bihari Bose, a leader of the Indian nationalist movement who was living in exile in Japan.

Nakamuraya's curry is thickened naturally with vegetables, not flour. The taste is light, yet full-bodied. It makes for a healthy meal because it uses plenty of spices that are used as herbal medicines, and you won't get tired of it even if you eat it often.

Main ingredients (serves 5):800 g chunks of chicken thigh (with bone), 500 g coarsely chopped onion, 100 g finely chopped carrot, 150 g potato chunks, 500 cc plain yogurt

Garam masala ingredients (whole, not powdered)From top left: cinnamon sticks, cloves, cardamom. From lower left: coriander, peppercorns, cumin.
Garam masala is made by grinding these spices in a stone mill until they are powdered, then mixing them together.

Curried Sauce for Curry on Rice

(1)	Melt 150 grams of butter in a pot. Add 1 teaspoon of cumin seed, 15 grams of finely chopped garlic, and 10 grams of finely chopped ginger, in that order. Sauté at medium heat, being careful not to burn the mixture. After the fragrances are released, add onion and continue to sauté

(4)	Add 35 grams of curry powder. Sauté, continually mixing the ingredients and coating the chicken with the curry powder. It can burn easily, so sauté slowly on low heat. The aim here is to release the fragrance of the curry powder.

(2)	Sauté for about 40 minutes, until the onion becomes golden brown, to produce more fragrance and a sweet taste. Be careful the ingredients do not burn. Add carrot and potato, and continue to sauté

(5)	Mix in yogurt, which has been whipped to prevent curdling. Add 500 cc of soup stock and 2 teaspoons of salt. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat. Simmer for about 30 minutes.

(3)	After the potato becomes somewhat translucent, add the chicken. Saut the chicken until the meat is white, pressing it down lightly on the bottom of the pot, to give the skin a golden-brown color.

(6)	Add 3 grams of garam masala . Bring the curry to a boil again, cover and turn off the heat. Let the curry stew in its own heat for about 30 minutes, so that the flavors spread through the entire mixture.

Ramen

2008-11-25T00:40:00.000-08:00

Japanese people love noodles, especiallyudon(made from wheat) and soba (made from buckwheat).Ramen (Chinese wheat noodles) are very popular too, especially among the young. They have almost become a national dish.

Foreground: Ramen served the old-fashioned way, in a light soup seasoned with soy sauce. This type of ramen is now rare--nowadays, the soup is generally thick and cloudy.
Back right: Ramen in a miso-flavored soup, with Welsh onions.

Ramen originated in China, and used to be calledChuka-soba (Chinese noodles) in Japan. The Japanese began eating them in the 1910s, around the time Chinese cuisine began receiving widespread attention.Ramen is now the name for a simple dish consisting of Chinese-style wheat noodles in a soup seasoned with soy sauce, topped with simmered pork,naruto fish paste, bambooshoot pickles, and vegetables such as spinach orkomatsuna (a kind of Chinese cabbage). When ramen first came to Japan, it was served mainly in small sidewalk stalls.

Chinese-style noodles are made by mixing alkaline water (containing sodium carbonate and potassium carbonate) with wheat flour to make a dough. The dough is kneaded, then shaped into cylindrical strips. Each strip is stretched into a fairly thin string, then folded in half to make two lengths, which are then stretched again. The stretching and folding is repeated over and over, to get an increasing number of thinner strings.

I learned how to make ramen noodles this way in Shanghai. It was fascinating to watch one noodle become two, two become four, and so on, doubling all the time.
Nobody knows the origin of the word "ramen," although there are several theories. The most likely explanation, based on the way to make noodles, is that the word comes from two Chinese characters that are read as "ra" and "men," meaning "stretch" and "noodle."

In the 1950s, someone who had returned to Japan from China a few years after the war started making "Sapporo Ramen" in Hokkaido. The noodles became popular, and the word ramen was soon heard everywhere. By the 1980s, ramen had become a regular meal for young and old alike.Ramenenjoyed an unprecedented boom throughout the country in the first part of the 1990s, especially in large cities, and almost every mass media outlet rode the wave, playing them up in special features dedicated just to noodles.

How To Make Ramen

(1)	Boil water in a large pot. Add chicken bones, garlic, ginger, green onions, carrots, onions, kombu seaweed, and other ingredients to taste. Simmer for more than 4 hours on low heat, to make the stock.

(2)	Simmer a block of pork in soy sauce, sake and monosodium glutamate. The liquid becomes a gravy to which the stock is added to make a soup. Put this gravy in large soup bowls with chopped green onions.

(3)	Bring water to a boil in another pot. Cook noodles in the boiling water for about 1 minute, with the top on the pot. (The noodles will cook quickly if the pot is covered while boiling at a high heat.)

(4)	While the noodles are boiling, add some of the stock to the gravy in the soup bowls and blend well.

(5)	When the noodles are cooked, take them out with a strainer, shake them to remove all excess water, then add them to the soup in the bowls.

(6)	Garnish with thin slices of the simmered pork, bamboo-shoot pickles, boiled and strained komatsuna , and some hard-boiled egg.

This was not a passing gourmet phase but a social phenomenon, with people all over Japan setting out to find aramen restaurant that was close to perfection.
Theramen boom has subsided a little since then, but the start of the new century shows no decline in its overall popularity. Each specialty restaurant continues to refine the taste in its own way, carefully selecting just the "right" noodles and recipe for the soup, seasonings and toppings. They have to appeal to people who have developed a very discriminating palate. Competition is intense, and some restaurants have long lines of people waiting to get in. Keen enthusiasts try out new restaurants as soon as they open, write up critiques and rank them according to their own subjective standards, then post the results on their homepage. In this way, theramen fad keeps up with modern trends.

The boom began in Sapporo, northern Japan, and spread to cities in different parts of the country, each city lending its name to the local brand--Hakata, Kagoshima, Kumamoto, Hiroshima, Wakayama, Kitakata, and more.

This page introduces a Kanto (Tokyo) variety made at a restaurant called Pepe. The noodles are comparatively thin, and the clear soup, which is seasoned with soy sauce, is especially noteworthy because it is not greasy.

SAPPORO Festival

2008-11-25T00:21:00.000-08:00

Sapporo, Hokkaido's capital and largest city, gained international fame when it hosted the Winter Olympics in 1972. Sapporo's biggest annual event is the Sapporo Snow Festival, held each February.

A view of Odori Park (Sapporo City)

This festival is said to have begun in 1950, when local middle and high school students created six snow sculptures in Odori Park, which is located along Sapporo's main avenue. Today, the event has grown into a festival of snow and ice that attracts over two million visitors each year from Japan and around the world.

The festival's main attractions are the 300 snow sculptures that line the entire 1.5-kilometer length of Odori Park. The amount of snow used for these sculptures is equivalent to about 3,500 five-ton truckloads. The sculptures are created by members of Japan's Self-Defense Forces, along with many volunteers.

Snow sculptures of Flinders Street Station (top) and Narnia (middle), and the Satorando Maze (bottom) (Sapporo City)

The 57th festival was held this year from February 6 to 12. In commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the signing of a treaty of friendship between Australia and Japan, Flinders Street Station - the symbol of Melbourne, Australia - was depicted in a giant sculpture 15 meters high and 27 meters wide.

There were also huge sculptures of the main hall of Nara Prefecture's Horyuji temple, the world's oldest wooden structure, and sculptures inspired by the Disney film The Chronicles of Narnia. A slide made out of snow was also constructed. During the festival, the entire venue is lit up at night, turning this northern city into a magical fantasyland.

Beginning this year, a new venue called Satorando, in Sapporo's Higashi Ward, was used in addition to Odori Park. The Satorando venue featured a maze made of snow and an area where visitors could enjoy building snowmen.

Directions
Sapporo is about one-and-a-half hours from Tokyo by plane. From Shin-Chitose Airport, it takes about 40 minutes by JR train to get to central Sapporo. Odori Park is one stop from Sapporo Station on the subway. The Satorando venue is 40 minutes from Odori Park by bus.

Gallery Bento

2008-11-25T00:10:00.001-08:00

A kid's bento

This is a boy's bento. It has a picture of Thomas the Tank Engine on the lid. The rice has some spice sprinkled on the top of it. There is also a rice ball (onigiri) made to look like a soccer ball using seaweed. Soccer is very popular among Japanese kids.

Side dishes include fried shrimp, a mini-hamburger steak with ketchup, boiled asparagus, potato salad, green soybeans, fried potatoes, cherries, and other foods. There are even boiled quail eggs made to look like the face of a bird. The face of Pikachu appears in the middle of the kamaboko (fish paste loaf).

Rice balls

Rice balls (onigiri) are made by forming cooked rice into a triangular, round, or cylindrical shape with the hands. The rice ball may be enhanced with any of a variety of ingredients, which are tucked inside the ball. The most traditional addition is a pickled apricot, but other favorites include baked cod roe, grilled salted salmon, vegetables boiled down in sweetened soy sauce, dried bonito fish flakes, and in recent years even Western-style ingredients such as tuna flavored with mayonnaise. One secret to making tasty onigiri is to sprinkle a bit of salt on the hands before scooping up the rice. The onigiri is a uniquely Japanese food that can be thought of as the staple and main dish put together.

The pictures show four types of rice balls packed in a wicker bento box. Three of the rice balls are made with white rice wrapped in dried seaweed. The toppings included are salmon (top left), pickled apricot (top right), and a mixture of turnip greens and small fish (bottom right). One rice ball is made of takikomi gohan (rice with various ingredients cooked in). The side dishes include tamagoyaki (Japanese omelette), broad beans, and a variety of pickled vegetables.

Makunouchi bento

The name of this bento reflects its origins as a box lunch eaten during intermission at the theater. Traditionally, it was served in a set of tiered lacquered boxes and shared among several people. The top layers of boxes contained side dishes, and the bottom layer was packed with cylindrical rice balls. Now sold at bento shops and train stations as an individual box lunch, the makunouchi bento is one of the most popular types of bento.

The bento in the picture is a makunouchi bento sold in a department store. The rice is shaped in cylinders and is sprinkled with black sesame seeds. A pickled apricot rests on top. The side dishes include foods from both the ocean and the mountains, such as boiled shrimp, grilled fish, sweet potatoes, balls of cooked chicken, and burdock.

Ekiben (station bento) - kamameshi (rice cooked in a pot)

Kamameshi is rice cooked with fish and vegetables in a small pot. Flavored rice and a variety of ingredients are popular; the bento shown in the picture is a simple one. While this bento is not sold in a pot, the food inside has been prepared in a way that makes it appear that it has.

A female corporate employee's bento

This bento comes in two layers; a variety of colors can be seen in the food packed in this lacquer box. On top of the rice in the bottom layer are minced chicken meat, egg, and long thin strips of kidney beans. In the top layer are side dishes, including asparagus and carrots wrapped in meat and cooked, sugared sweet potato, salad (lettuce, radish, cucumber, and cauliflower), and fruit (a strawberry, an orange slice, and a piece of pineapple). This bento contains a variety of different foods. The small container at the bottom contains salad dressing.

A male corporate employee's bento

This bento is packed in a lacquer box and contains a lot of food. The bottom layer contains rice with seaweed sandwiched in the middle. There is more seaweed on the top of the right side of the rice, and there are some spices sprinkled on the left side. There is a pickled apricot on the left side. Side dishes include vegetable tempura, grilled fish, chicken boiled in soy sauce, Chinese stir-fried beef and vegetables, and boiled spinach.

Bento for commercial sale -fried food

This bento includes fried pork on a skewer, a croquette, pork cooked with ginger, and a sausage. This bento packs a lot of energy!

Bento for commercial sale - chirashizushi bento

This chirashizushi (raw fish and other ingredients on a bed of sushi rice) bento contains a number of different kinds of seafood, including tuna, squid, crab, salmon, salmon eggs, shrimp, scallops, sea urchin, and conger eel. While a number of the ingredients are boiled or grilled, many of them are raw.

Ekiben (station bento) - mackerel sushi

When the bamboo leaves are opened, half of a mackerel that has been prepared with vinegar and covered with thin strips of kelp greets the eye. Underneath the mackerel is sushi rice. Soy sauce can be added according to taste. The dish includes ginger pickled in sweet vinegar. Food wrapped in bamboo leaves is one of the original forms of bento.

Ekiben (station bento) - Fukagawa rice

Ekiben (station bento) include an area's special products. Fukagawa is a part of the older section of Tokyo that has long been famous for asari (short-necked clams), so Fukagawa rice is often called asari rice. Fukagawa rice was originally made by pouring miso soup made with asari and leeks over rice. This ekiben (station bento) contains rice cooked with asari. Fried conger eel and goby simmered in a mixture that includes soy sauce and suger are placed on top of the rice, giving this bento the taste of Tokyo.

Bento container woven from bamboo and willow strips

In the past, large wicker boxes weaved from willow or bamboo were used for storing clothes, while small ones were used as bento boxes. Large wicker boxes are used very rarely today, but the smaller ones are still enjoyed today by some who appreciate the feel of a box made from natural materials.

Container made by bending fine sheets of wood

This type of curved bento box is made by carving cedar or cypress, bending it into this shape, and then attaching a separate piece of wood for the bottom. This type of curved box has existed since the Yayoi period and has been used throughout the centuries in both everyday life and making offerings to the gods. In the picture is a curved bento box used nowadays. There is a divider in the middle; rice goes in one half of the box, while side dishes go in the other.

A hangetsu (half moon) bento box

This type of box with the shape of a half-moon is said to have been a favorite of Sen no Rikyu, who established the tea ceremony in the Momoyama period (1573-1603). Rather than a box for carrying food, this box's shape is designed to contribute to the meal, allowing the eater to experience the bento with all five senses. The bento in the picture is one that would be served in early summer. It contains tamagoyaki (Japanese omelette), boiled sardines, a marinade of shellfish and summer vegetables, octopus, and small sweet potatoes and other boiled foods. It also contains fried fish pickled in vinegar, fried horse mackerel, and grilled chicken. The rice is shaped in small cylinders.

The Shokado bento box

The Shokado bento box was inspired by paintboxes that the monk Shokado Shojo used. The four compartments help to create visually appealing presentations of rice and side dishes.

Aluminum bento box

Modern bento boxes are made from a variety of materials, but the most common is anodized aluminum. Before plastic bento boxes were made, just about everyone used an anodized aluminum one, so for many people bento carries with it the image of this aluminum box. Even today some boys take their lunch to school in this kind of box.

Cartoon-character bento box

Hello Kitty is popular not only with kids but also with young women. This bento set has Hello Kitty's picture on the bento box, the chopsticks, the chopstick case, and even the dressing case.

Bento-related character products

This carrying bag for a bento box also contains Hello Kitty's likeness, as do the towel and the carrying case for the towel.

Nature And Climate

2008-11-24T23:47:00.000-08:00

The land area of Japan is 378,000 square kilometers, which is one twenty-fifth that of the United States (a little smaller than California), one-twentieth that of Australia, and 1.5 times that of Britain. Three-quarters of the country is mountainous, with plains and basins covering the remaining area. Japan consists of a long series of islands stretching for 3,000 kilometers from north to south. The four main islands are Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu.Japan is surrounded by sea. Warm and cold currents flow through the seas around it, creating an environment that supports a variety of fish species.

Most of Japan is in the Northern Temperate Zone of the earth and has a humid monsoon climate, with southeasterly winds blowing from the Pacific Ocean during the summer and northwesterly winds blowing from the Eurasian continent in the winter.

SPRING

The country has four well-defined seasons. Two of the most beautiful sights in Japan are the cherry blossoms in spring and the vibrant reds, oranges, and yellows of the autumn leaves. The Japanese people enjoy these signs of the changing seasons and track their progress with weather reports, which feature maps showing where the spring blossoms and autumn leaves are at their best. The far north and south of Japan have very different climates. In March, for example, you can go sunbathing in the south and skiing in the north!

SUMMER

AUTUMN

WINTER

The country often suffers such serious natural disasters as typhoons, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes. Although these disasters can claim many lives, as in the Kobe Earthquake of January 1995 and the Niigata-Chuetsu Earthquake of October 2004, the Japanese have been working hard for years to minimize their damage. Japan uses state-of-the-art technologies to design quake-resistant structures and to track storms with greater precision.

Just What The Doctor Ordered

2008-11-24T23:16:00.000-08:00

"Doctor's Restaurants" Combine Food and Health

A tasy and healthy meal. ©Tokyo Food Theater 5+1

Trends of Japan

Sushi...Sushi...Sushi

Spaghetti Napolitan

Soy Sauce Desserts

Healthy Food

My Amazon

Chirashi-zushi

Suchi Rice

Sushi

How To Hold Chopstick ?

Dora-yaki

Tamago-yaki

Soba - A Healthy Fast Food

Curry on Rice

Ramen

SAPPORO Festival

Gallery Bento

Nature And Climate

Just What The Doctor Ordered

"Doctor's Restaurants" Combine Food and Health

Charming Tateyama-Kurobe

Alpine Route Ranked One of Japan's Top Tourist Spots

Soy Sauce Desserts

Sweet Uses for Salty Condiment

Aomori Offers Culinary Treats For All Seasons

Northern Land Boasts Bounty from the Ocean and Mountains

Yokohama, A Port With an International Flavor

Home to Japan's Largest Chinatown

Roppongi, An Art Lover's Paradise

Museums Attract Daytime Visitors to Nightlife District

Otaru, Hokkaido

Ranked Hokkaido's Nicest Place to Visit

"Spaceship" Lands In Shibuya

Youth Culture Hub Gets a Futuristic New Face

Sweet Success

Consumers Get a Taste for Dessert-Shaped Products

The Evolving World of Karaoke

The Evolving World of Karaoke

Dads More Involved In Raising Kids

Society Supports Work-Life Balance

New Tool Against Food Poisoning

Miniature Device Detects Bacteria in Minutes

Making Farmwork Easier