Food Adventures in Japan

What do we eat while we’re here? Quite the variety. We eat out more than in the States, partly because we’re out and about so much, trying to explore Japan. Out: we’ll eat Japanese, Thai, Italian, etc. At home, it’s often a Japanese-US fusion. We’re not quite familiar enough with Japanese cooking to make authentic cuisine, but have so many ingredients readily available that we do our best. A few examples:

Home-made miso soup: (More traditional). We bought the Miso in Nagano prefecture, after a hike in between two post towns. First made home-made daishi stock – this is the foundation of most of traditional Japanese cuisine. It is essentially a stock, but made using kombu, or dried giant seaweed, and katsuobushi, or dried bonito flakes. I (Heidi) couldn’t quite read any of the packages at the grocery store – but had read about it, and took a wild stab at the packages that looked large, popular, and seaweedy/fishy. I seem to have guessed right – the daishi was a little strong, but after stirring in miso, some sliced soft tofu, and some chopped green onions – the soup was delicious.

Homemade Vegetable Gyoza: Finely chopped veggies wrapped in won-ton wrappers. Steam or fry. Serve with a variety of dipping sauces. I like the recipe I found for sesame-soy dipping sauce. Serve with salad and rice.

Fish Tacos: Some beautiful tuna that had sat around for a day or so longer than we thought best for sushi. Marinated in a little mirin, sugar, soy (essentially, a teriyaki). Pan-seared, leaving the fish very rare. Shredded cabbage (lots of cabbage options here), some yogurt with lemon, and a little feta. Excellent.

 

Soup: Homemade fish stock. Not proper daishi, but made from fish heads, celery (we think) from the garden), onions, herbs. Add aromatic vegetables, buckwheat noodles (soba), and green-tea rubbed seared salmon – lovely.

 

Endless variations of rice: fried rice, onigiri (Japanese rice balls), and rice with (insert sautéed vegetable/meat here). We usually use brown rice – easy enough to find in Japanese grocery stores, although more expensive, with a ratio is 3 brown rice options to about 200 white rice options. Often served with fish or squid – our “Japanese” oven is really a small fish grill.

Japanese adaptations of “traditional” American food too, especially on busy nights  – Japanese love hamburgers, and generally eat them softer, with teriyaki. Flatbread pizza (cooked in our toaster) made with sautéed mixtures and seasoned with soy, ginger, sesame, and rice wine.

For the foodie-folk out there – more soon on meals-out, Japanese-style!