Nitsuke is a fish boiled with soy sauce, sake and sugar. Japanese people often boil a sea bream or a right eye flounder as Nitsuke. The important point of cooking Nitsuke is time for boiling a fish. We should simmer a fish on a low heat for over ten minutes. If you gently wrap a fish with a cooking sheet cut into a circle for simmer, a fish will be more flavorful.
Vegetables are put on a boiled fish before served. They show it to more pretty and attractive. I would like to recommend to put rape blossoms in the current season. You had better boil rape blossoms with a few salt separately from Nitsuke. If rape blossoms is put on Nitsuke, we feel Spring come.
What is an omrice? An omrice is rice fried with chicken wrapped by an omelet. If so, is an omrice a kind of Washoku, Japanese cuisine? Yes, whatever dish which Japanese people have in Japan is a kind of Washoku. Japanese people have incorporated a lot of foreign dishes into our dishes. At the same time, Japanese people have arranged them according to Japanese manners, customs, culture, etc. An omrice is a kind of these arranged dishes over one hundred or more years ago.
Almost Japanese children like an omrice. They put ketchup on an omrice before having it. But they are worried that they cannot eat an omrice because a drawing by ketchup is so pretty.
Chirashi-zushi is often taken at the beginning of spring in Japan. Chirashi-zushi is a kind of sushi, vinegared rice with thin strips of egg, pieces of raw fish, vegetables and crab meat arranged on top. It is so beautiful and pretty. Mach 3rd is the day of the Doll’s Festival of Japan. People have amazake which is a sweet alcoholic drink made from fermented rice on March 3rd. And the main dish at that time is Chirashi-zushi. When we Japanese take Chirashi-zushi on March 3rd, we feel the coming of spring.
I used to eat Chirashi-zushi instead of Nigiri-zushi in my childhood. At those days I did not like so much Chirashi-zushi because Chirashi-zushi was a bit of sweet. But now it becomes a sweet memory.
Kitsune-udon
Udon is one of the most popular food to Japanese
people. Udon is made from wheat flour. I think the king of Udon is
Kitsune-udon. Kitsune-udon is Udon with a piece of deep-fried tofu. The
deep-fried tofu was simmered with sugar and soy sauce before it is put into
Udon soup. Udon soup is made from a lot of piece of dried bonito shavings and kombu.
Since the ingredients of Kitsune-udon are the only above things, Kitsune-udon
is very simple but has deep flavor. Soba made from buckwheat with a piece of
deep-fried tofu is called Tanuki. Kitsune means fox and Tanuki means raccoon
dog in Japanese. Japanese people have been attached to Both Kitsune and Tanuki
for hundreds years.
