Posts Tagged: lunches

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6
Aug 10

Donburi: Rice Bowl Meals

In Japan, eating donburi is an easy way to warm up on a cold winter day–or just to enjoy a flavorful, hot dish whenever the craving strikes you. “Donburi” means simply “bowl,” but when it comes to food, it refers to a family of rice bowl dishes. What distinguishes these types of dishes is that meat, tofu, eggs and/or vegetables are simmered together into a stew and then poured atop steamed white rice.

There is no singular simmering sauce used in all dishes, but popular ones include dashi (the stock used in miso soup), soy sauce, and mirin (a type of rice wine). Ingredients typically (but not always) included are onions, eggs, and seafood. One of the most popular types of donburi is oyakodon, which literally means “parent-child donburi.” This is because it consists of both chicken (the “parent”) and egg (“the child”). Oyakodon also includes onions and may be simmered in a variety of sauces, but is usually simmered in a soy sauce mixture.

Another popular donburi dish is katsudon, which features fried pork cutlets, egg, and onions. However, there are many seafood varieties, such as tenshidon, which offers a crab meat omelet over rice, and tekkadon, which features spicy raw tuna and seaweed. There’s also unadon, which includes cooked eel.

You can find beef in donburi dishes such as gyuudon, which features just beef and onions, and tanindon, which is like oyakodon, only with beef in place of the chicken. (“Tanin” means “stranger,” since the beef and egg would have no familial relation.)

Donburi are typically inexpensive dishes available quick to order. You may find a small Japanese restaurant with only counter seating, but turnover is fast since the food is made quickly and you’ll be able to get a seat without much wait. Just don’t linger around more than necessary, as you’ll want to free up your seat for another customer.

Donburi dishes are also popular ways to prepare leftovers and give them additional flavor. Home chefs need only simmer some meat and vegetables from a previous meal together in sauce and serve them over steamed rice.

Have you ever eaten a donburi dish? Which one? Which ones sounds the most appealing to you and why?

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9
Jul 10

Japanese Curry (Best Served with Rice)

When you think of curry, you usually think of India, the homeland of the dish. In Japan, while they do have Indian curry on many a restaurant menu (it’s called “indo karee” in Japan), there’s a Japanese treatment of curry (called “karee,” pronounced “kah-ray”) that’s far more popular.

Curry has only been in Japan since the late 19th century, but it’s already considered a fairly quintessential Japanese dish. Curry made its way to Japan via the English Navy. As India was an English colony at the time, the British had been influenced by Indian cooking and introduced the way in which they replicated the dish to the Japanese once Japan opened up to the West. In the British recipe, curry mimicked the style of Western stew, and that became the basis of Japanese curry.

Japanese curry took a while to catch on, but it positively flourished in the late 1960s. Besides being available in many food stands and restaurants, the curry roux mix made it possible for Japanese homemakers to easily make the dish at home. It wasn’t until the 1990s that actual Indian-style curry became somewhat popular in Japan as well.

Japanese curry is traditionally much less spicy than Indian curry, although it can be extra spicy at the chef’s discretion. The sauce is typically made from curry powder, flour and oil (and can more easily be purchased rather than made in the form of curry roux in supermarkets). The basic vegetables cooked in the sauce are carrots, onions and potatoes, but the chef can add any number of vegetables (and fruits!), such as peas, scallops, eggplants, turnips, broccoli, lotus roots, pears, melons and apples. Also in the curry is usually a meat, either cooked without additives or deep-fried first. Popular choices in Japan include beef, pork, chicken, oyster, duck and even deer.

Served over rice, Japanese curry is known as just “karee” or “karee raisu.” Other popular ways to eat Japanese curry include as the filling in bread (“karee pan”), over Japanese noodles (“karee udon”), with a raw egg (“yaki karee”) and as a soup (“suupu karee”). Japanese curry is usually quite affordable and can be found at most types of restaurants in Japan, fast-food and sit-down alike.

Have you tried Japanese curry? Did you like it more or less than Indian curry? Which type of Japanese curry seems the most appealing to you?

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24
May 10

The Japanese Hamburger

This week we thought we’d do something different when it comes to discussing Japanese food and instead discuss what the Japanese do with what is generally considered a Western food: the hamburger. To have a hamburger in Japan (or just to have one Japanese style) is not quite the same as getting a hamburger in the West. So while you’re on a crusade to sample Japanese food, don’t forget to try some of the food you’re probably more familiar with—only in the Japanese way!

Most Japanese hamburgers (known as “hanbaagu” in Japan) are similar to what is known as “hamburger steak” in the West. Eaten with a knife and fork on a plate (with no bun), the Japanese hamburger patty is made from beef or pork (or both) and is minced together with onions, breadcrumbs, eggs and/or a mixtures of spices. The patty is then served with the diner’s topping of choice, which is typically a combination of any of the following: a fried egg, teriyaki sauce, demi-glace brown sauce, or vegetables.

When the Japanese decide to make hamburgers at home, more often than not it’s the hamburger steak. This is also a popular dish in family restaurants and other restaurants serving Western-style food.

The Japanese actually do have American-style hamburgers complete with a bun, called “hanbaagaa,” in the American-export fast food chains, such as McDonald’s and Burger King, as well as in other Asian burger franchises. However, the Japanese find holding their food directly with their hands unsanitary. If you order a hamburger in Japan, don’t be surprised to find it served in cup-shaped tissue paper that you’re expected not to unwrap. You hold onto the burger by gripping the tissue paper portion (careful not to bite into the paper!), allowing you to eat the hamburger without touching your food directly.

Another way that the Western-style burger differs in Japan is in the toppings. Teriyaki sauce-covered patties, fried egg-covered patties, shrimp croquette-covered patties, patties made from tofu, and even pork cutlets in place of the beef make for popular hamburgers in Japan. Some hamburger buns are even made entirely from rice grains!

Have you ever had a Japanese hanbaagu or hanbaagaa? What did you think of them? Would you be interested in trying one? Do you like the idea of not touching your burger with your hands for sanitary reasons?

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18
May 10

Carry Things the Japanese Way: How to Fold a Furoshiki

A few weeks ago, we discussed the bento lunch in Japan and briefly mentioned the wrappings via which a bento box is usually carried: the furoshiki. This very large handkerchief-like cloth is reusable and thus makes an environmentally-friendly way to transport food. (The bento box itself traditionally has no handles and is not simple to carry.) It can also double as a food mat to spread out on your desk, lap or even on the grass once you unwrap your bento box, catching spills and making clean up much easier.

The furoshiki dates back to the 8th century CE, when it was originally called the hirazutsumi (“flat, folded bundle”). It became colloquially known as the furoshiki (“bath spread”) during the Edo Period (17th to 19th century CE) when it became a common practice to use the cloth to bring clothes to and from the public baths.

The furoshiki is actually used for far more than just wrapping lunch to-go. The original intent of the furoshiki was something like a modern grocery bag or tote bag, allowing the user to transport food, shopping goods, and other items. It could also be used to protect boxes and items from dust during storage. The furoshiki was even used like wrapping paper for gifts. (Traditionally, the giver receives the wrappings back.) These uses are still prevalent today, particularly for those who wish to reduce their waste contribution.  You’re even likely to see some Japanese businesspeople and government workers carrying documents in furoshiki instead of briefcases.

Furoshiki come in multiple sizes and can be almost as large as a beach towel, only in a square shape. What we think of as a handkerchief in the West is usually not large enough to be considered a furoshiki because you need plenty of cloth with which to craft handles out of the fabric when you tie it around the item. However, if a handkerchief is all you have on hand, you can try wrapping something small. Otherwise, scour Japanese supermarkets and housewares stores for your own furoshiki, both locally and online. The ones made out of material like rayon are relatively inexpensive.

There are many ways to wrap items using a furoshiki, but we’re going to look at three of the most common ways in closer detail:

Otsukai-tsutsumi (“carrying wrap”):

The most basic of ways to wrap a furoshiki is the otsukai-tsutsumi, which is usually the method used for wrapping square or rectangular bento boxes.

  1. Place the furoshiki, non-decorated side (if applicable) face up, on a hard surface. The fabric should be rotated 90 degrees, with the corners of the fabric pointing up, down, left and right. Place the box to be wrapped in the middle of the fabric.
  2. Fold the top corner of the fabric down over the box as far as it will go without shifting the box from its place.
  3. Fold the bottom corner of the fabric over the last fold and the box as far as it will go. Don’t pull too hard. Let the bottom corner flop over the box without tucking it in.
  4. Fold the left and then the right corners of the fabric across the box.
  5. Tie the left and right corners fairly tightly, but leave just a small amount of leeway in the fabric. (This will be the handle.)
  6. Knot the two corners together. Make the knot tight enough so it won’t fall apart on its own, but loose enough that you won’t have difficulty getting the knot undone when you’re hungry!
  7. Carry the box by the knot.

Hon-tsutsumi (“book wrap”):

Sometimes translated as “the briefcase” because it acts in a similar fashion, the hon-tsutsumi allows you to carry rectangular documents as well as books. You’ll need at least two piles of documents or two books of roughly the same height and width to make this wrap work.

  1. Place the furoshiki, non-decorated side (if applicable) face up, on a hard surface. The fabric should be in a normal square shape with the corners of the fabric at the left and right of the top and bottom. Place the books (or piles of documents) diagonally across the fabric toward the center. Leave a small amount of space between the books.
  2. Fold the bottom left and the top right corners of the fabric over the book that they are nearest. Tuck the corners under the book. Pull tightly, but make sure you don’t shift the books. There should still be a bit of space between the books.
  3. Pull the top left and the bottom right corners of the fabric across the books to the opposite side. The corners should stick out a bit beyond the books.
  4. Carefully flip one book over and stack it atop the other book. Make sure the corners of fabric that were sticking out before are still visible.
  5. Pull the two corners of fabric out and up and over the books (in the direction of the place where the book you just folded over originally was). Tie the two corners together somewhat tightly, but leave a little leeway. (This is the handle.) Knot the corners together as tightly as possible (but make sure you can easily undo the knot when necessary).
  6. Carry the books (or documents) by the knotted handle.

Bin-tsutsumi (“bottle wrap”):

Another popular use of the furoshiki is the bin-tsutsumi, which is used to wrap a single bottle either recently purchased or to be given as a gift. (There’s actually another method for wrapping two bottles at once.) Bottles intended for this wrap are traditionally tall and slender, such as wine and sake bottles.

  1. Place the furoshiki, non-decorated side (if applicable) face up, on a hard surface. The fabric should be rotated 90 degrees, with the corners of the fabric pointing up, down, left and right. Place the bottle standing up in the middle of the fabric.
  2. Pull the left and right corners of the fabric up over the top of the bottle. Tie them together fairly tightly, but leave some leeway. (This will be the handle.) Knot the fabric together tightly, but make sure you’ll be able to undo the knot when needed.
  3. Wrap the top corner of the fabric around the front (not the top) of the bottle as far as it will go. Wrap the bottom corner of the fabric across the last fold in the opposite direction.
  4. Flip the bottle around. Grab both corners of the fabric that are sticking out and pull them as tight as they will go. Tie and knot the two corners together as tightly as possible without making the knot too hard to undo. (You will not be using this knot as a handle, so you won’t need any leeway. You want to make sure the knot is tight enough to keep the bottle in place.)
  5. Carry the bottle by the top knot of the fabric.

This post is an entry for Japan Blog Matsuri. Read about more Japanese how-tos at the Nihon Group website!

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10
May 10

Onigiri: A Simple Way to Eat Rice

While in the West, you might pack or grab a sandwich when you want to eat on-the-go, in Japan, you may grab a rice ball, or onigiri. When you think of white rice, you probably don’t imagine being able to scoop it into a ball and take it on the go without it falling apart. However, onigiri is actually just that.

Onigiri is rice that’s specially prepared to remain sticky so that it’s easily shaped. The rice (white rice only) isn’t rinsed before cooking, which helps contribute to its stickiness and makes it clump together. The rice also can’t be instant rice and is usually short-grain. Depending on the chef, a small amount of salt may be added to help preserve the rice but is not always necessary.

The rice is then shaped into a convenient small form. Although usually translated as “rice balls,” onigiri are more often triangular in shape than circular, but they can also be circular, oval or rectangular (often confusing people unfamiliar with the dish who think that it’s sushi), star-shaped or any kind of shape the chef desires. To help keep the rice together, the outside of the rice is usually (but not always) partially wrapped in a strip of dried seaweed (nori).

Some onigiri are served plain, but there’s often at least one (usually salty) ingredient literally stuffed into the middle of the ball of rice. This helps not only contribute to longer preservation but gives the onigiri more flavor. Popular ingredients include umeboshi (pickled ume, an apricot-like fruit), kombu (dried kelp), satled salmon, dried tuna, and salted roe. In some parts of the world, particularly in Hawaii, onigiri is often prepared with Spam.

Japanese people frequently have onigiri for lunch (either on its own—perhaps more than one at a time—or paired with something else) and you’re more likely to see a student buy or pack an onigiri from home than a sandwich. People frequently make their own onigiri, but they can also buy them from convenience stores, vending machines and cafeterias for cheap. Ongiri are high in carbohydrates, so they’re filling and give you a fair amount of energy. However, they’re not typically a delicacy eaten for dinner or ordered at a restaurant.

Have you ever eaten an onigiri? Do you think you would like to try one? Would you rather have rice or sandwiches for lunch?

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28
Apr 10

Fish for Breakfast: The Classic Japanese Breakfast

In the West, the classic breakfast could include pancakes, waffles, eggs, sausage, bacon, orange juice, milk, cereal, or hash browns—or maybe if we’re in a hurry, just a granola bar, a muffin, or yogurt. In Japan, though, breakfast is taken seriously and, when prepared in the classic fashion, may seem more like what we’d expect for dinner or lunch than breakfast.

While some Western breakfast staples have become a bit more popular in Japan, particularly as an occasional treat, they’re not typically eaten each morning. The closest breakfast item the West shares with Japan is eggs, as the Japanese are particularly fond of dishes such as ome rice, an omelet in which the egg yolks are mixed with (cooked) rice and any choice of vegetables (such as zucchini, carrots or onions) or meat (particularly chicken, pork, or beef) before the mixture is fried into an omelet. If the chef is so inclined, she or he may also decorate the oblong-shaped omelet with a design or message written in ketchup, the most popular condiment for omelets in Japan. Tamagoyaki, another popular style of omelet which is basically just a rolled omelet with or without vegetables and meat, is also served for Japanese breakfasts, usually with soy sauce.

However, the similarities between the Western and the Japanese breakfast end there. In the traditional Japanese family, the mother or wife will wake up before her husband and/or children—as much as an hour beforehand—to prepare a full-course breakfast while she also works on packing them a cold lunch for later. Traditional staples of the Japanese breakfast include:

  • Fish, particularly broiled, dried and salted fish. Popular choices are horse mackerel and salmon.
  • Rice, either just a bowl of steamed white rice or rice mixed with seaweed and/or vegetables. Some families prefer okayu, which is warm rice porridge.
  • Miso soup, complete with seaweed, tofu and onions.
  • Seaweed, either within other dishes or just served in dried rolls or strips. The seaweed on its own is often dipped into soy sauce.
  • Natto, which is a form of fermented soy beans. This sticky, strong-smelling part of a Japanese breakfast is great with soy sauce or on top of rice.
  • Pickled vegetables, which are pickled in brine or salt. Some popular pickled vegetables include cucumbers, turnips, ume (a kind of plum), cabbage and radishes. These can be eaten on their own or mixed with rice.
  • Salad, Japanese style. With lettuce or cabbage and traditional vegetable accompaniments.
  • Green tea (the most popular breakfast drink).

Do you think you would like or dislike to eat so much for breakfast? Does the traditional Japanese breakfast appeal to you? Would you rather have fish or pancakes for breakfast?

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16
Apr 10

Japanese Schooling, Part 3: School Life

Uniforms are required at most Japanese middle and high schools (and some elementary schools), public and private alike, but each school makes the uniforms slightly different. Boys’ uniforms can either be similar to a business suit (pants, blazer, tie, dress shirt) or military-style with a high-collared buttoned-up jacket and perhaps a military-style hat that they wear for special occasions.

Girls’ uniforms always consist of skirts but can follow one of two styles: business-style (skirt, blazer or sweater, dress shirt and tie or bowtie) or seeraa-fuku (“sailor uniform”), which consists of a skirt and a shirt with an old-fashioned sailor collar and bowtie or ribbon around the neck. There are usually two types of uniforms for each gender at each school, one for the colder months and one for the warmer uniforms, but girls always have to leave their legs exposed, even during the cold months!

Although it varies from school to school, most Japanese school days last from 8:30 or 8:45 a.m. to 3:50 p.m., although attendance at after-school activities is virtually required, so students usually stay until 5 to 6 p.m. Students get a lunch break for 30 to 45 minutes halfway through the day, during which they can either eat cafeteria food—if the school has a cafeteria—food sold at a snack cart, or food they’ve brought from home. If the school doesn’t have a cafeteria, students eat in the classroom and lunch workers bring wrapped trays of food for those who haven’t brought their own lunches. Older students can usually eat where they want in the public areas of the school (like outside if it’s nice out), but elementary students are usually supervised during lunch.

Instead of teachers generally staying put in one classroom and students moving from classroom to classroom throughout the day as they do in American middle and high schools, Japanese schools even through high school are closer to American elementary schools in that the same group of students stays put in one classroom all day long (expect when headed for gym or perhaps some arts class). Instead, the teachers move from classroom to classroom throughout the day. This means that students are typically stuck with the same group of classmates—for better or worse—for at least the entire school year, if not for the full three years. Each classroom has a homeroom teacher who takes attendance and discusses morning announcements before classes begin.

Do you like the idea of wearing uniforms in middle and high school? Do you think it’s fair that the girls’ uniform requires a skirt? What do you think of the idea of staying put in a single classroom for the entire day?

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30
Mar 10

Lunch in Japan: The Bento

When bringing food from home for lunch at school or work, the menu generally consists of last night’s leftovers in a Tupperware container or a freshly-made sandwich, piece of fruit and juice box in a paper bag. In Japan, the traditional lunch-to-go is called the bento, which, appropriated from an ancient slang Chinese term, means “convenient.”

Bento are served not in bags, but in sturdy square or rectangular bento boxes, which range in quality from storage-container-like durable plastic to wooden boxes to fragile polished lacquerware. The more expensive boxes are often decorated ornately in a classical Japanese design and may be family heirlooms. Bento can also come in disposable plastic bento boxes when purchased pre-made at food stands or convenience and grocery stores.

The main feature of the inside of the box is its separated compartments, so food doesn’t become mixed. Smaller, cheaper bento boxes may have as few as two compartments, whereas larger, more expensive bento like those intended to carry an entire group’s food for an outing, may be three or four stacked layers of two to five compartments each. Bento boxes can be tucked into any school bag or brief case, but they are traditionally carried with a large decorative Japanese handkerchief called a furoshiki. The furoshiki is not used to blow noses or wipe faces and is intended for carrying items. You tie the cloth around the box and carry the box by the knot of fabric at the top.

Bento can contain virtually any Japanese or Western food that is easy to take on the go, but the primary staple is white rice. The largest compartment of the bento box, sometimes 2/3 the size of the box, is traditionally reserved for white rice with a little garnish, strips of seaweed or pickled vegetables. Popular food for the rest of the bento include picked vegetables, tempura meat and vegetables, sausages, chicken, fish, and boiled eggs. Less traditionally, bento may consist of Western food like finger sandwiches.

The most simple of all bento consists only of white rice with an umeboshi in the center. Umeboshi, which is often translated as “pickled plum” but is a pickled ume, a native Japanese fruit somewhat like an apricot, is red when pickled and this gives the bento the effect of looking like the Japanese flag (white with a red circle at the center). Therefore, this type of bento is called the Hinomaru bento, as Hinomaru is the name for the Japanese flag.

Traditionally, bento are cooked by Japanese mothers and wives for their children and husbands to take to school and work. Some women get up an hour or more before their families to make these bento, which not only feature delicious food, but may be elaborately decorated with patterns of colors or shapes or even meant to look like popular cartoon characters. The more ornate and varied the bento, the more “love” the woman is said to be packing for her husband or children and it’s often a joke that those stuck with the Hinomaru bento have unloving wives or mothers. More realistically, it could simply be that the busy career woman doesn’t have time to make elaborate lunches or the lunch was made by the man or student him or herself.

It’s also a traditional for Japanese girls, particularly high schoolers, to get up early before school to cook food and then offer a hand-made bento to their crushes or boyfriends, perhaps in anticipation of one day cooking for them during marriage. Although this is far less common as more women continue to work after marriage and children, an old-fashioned romantic Japanese marriage proposal translates to, “I want to eat your bento everyday.”

Can you imagine eating rice and pickled vegetables every day for lunch instead of sandwiches? Would you think it was fair for your mother, wife, or girlfriend to get up an hour early just to make you lunch?

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10
Mar 10

Eating, Drinking and Shopping at the Japanese Vending Machine

Japan has the largest per-capita amount of vending machines in the world, meaning that for about every 23 people, there’s one vending machine to be found down some alley, at some corner shop, at the train station, or even at a shrine.

Japan makes an ideal environment for the vending machine because crimes such as vandalism are pretty low; most people walk, bike, or use trains to get to places rather than drive; and there are many areas with large population densities. Besides food and drink that’s ready to be ingested, you can buy many things at vending machines, including fresh meat, eggs, and seafood for cooking later (saves a trip to the grocery store or market); MP3 players; potted plants; toys; books; and underwear. (Yes, underwear.) You can even buy items for which you need to be 18 or 20 (the legal adult age in Japan), such as alcohol, cigarettes and porn magazines, and there’s often no one there to check your ID! (However, that may be changing. In 2008, a new “smart card” system called Tapso requires cigarette machines to only sell to those who scan their Tapso card. The Tapso card is issued only to those who can prove they are of age.)

However, the vast majority of vending machines do sell non-alcoholic drinks and food that you can drink or eat the minute you purchase the item. The types of refreshments you’ll find at Japanese vending machines are much different and varied than that you’d find in the West. For one, you’ll find a much smaller selection of soda pop. Bottled tea in multiple flavors is by far the biggest vending machine seller, followed by juice and coffee. You’ll also find health drinks and yogurt-based drinks.

Vending machines that sell food can warm up the food if applicable. So you can grab snacks or ice cream, but you can also get hot soba noodles, french fries, fried chicken, hot dogs, grilled fish, takoyaki (octopus meat in ball-shaped dough), and taiyaki (a red bean paste dessert), to name a few. As for cold food, you can get items like sushi and rice balls, the latter of which is a staple of the Japanese diet.

Coins are the traditional method of payment, but as the Japanese become more and more dependent on their cell phones, newer vending machines have cell phone payment options. You just scan your cell phone reader (Japanese cell phones are a bit more advanced than those in the West) and the amount of the item is added to your cell phone bill!

Have you ever seen a Japanese vending machine? What did you buy? Do you use vending machines often? Would you use vending machines more often if they sold items as varied items as those in Japanese vending machines?