Daifuku

Daifuku is a soft round rice cake stuffed with sweet bean jam. The surface of Daifuku which is made of rice cake is usually tasteless. But the interior of Daifuku is very sweat. When you eat a Daifuku, you must feel happy. So Daifuku means a big happiness in Japanese. The point of making Daifuku is pouring a little salt into sweat bean jam. You may wonder why. However salty taste can bring out sweaty taste.

There are many variations of Daifuku. We could mix rice cake with green peas. We could blend rice cake with mugwort. Furthermore we could insert a strawberry into sweat bean jam. This is called a strawberry Daifuku. When I ate a strawberry Daifuku for the first time, it’s just like I have met a girlfriend after a long time.

Teriyaki chicken

Japanese people mostly like teriyaki food. Teriyaki chicken is one of the popular teriyaki. Teriyaki means the method of baking the food. Firstly chicken meat is notched several times with a kitchen knife. If you grilled chicken meat without notches, chicken meat would shrink in fire. Then chicken meat is grilled on both sides in a frying pan. When chicken meat is grilled well enough, you pour soy sauce, Japanese sake and sweat sake on the roasted chicken meat in a frying pan. Chicken meat marinated in the above seasoning is grilled again. At that time you are fascinated by the smell of teriyaki chicken.

The taste of teriyaki chicken is salt but sweat.

Japanese omelet

What is Japanese omelet? Is Japanese omelet Japanese cuisine? Japanese omelet is called “Tamago-yaki” in Japanese. Of course, Tamago-yaki is Washoku, Japanese cuisine. We use a specific frying pan for making Tamago-yaki. It is rectangle shaped. The important point of making Tamago-yaki is to stir soy source, sweet sake, sugar and salt into raw egg. The secondary important point is to pour the above mixed raw egg into a frying pan in a few parts. Usually we pour four times. Firstly a quarter of mixed raw egg is poured into a frying pan. When it is baked half, it is rolled and moved to one side on the frying pan. Then a quarter of mixed raw egg is poured into the frying pan again. We repeat the above thing four times.
When Japanese people go to the picnic, Tamago-yaki is almost brought in the lunch box. In this season, the smell of Tamago-yaki is in the air around the park on holiday.

Nitsuke

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.

Omrice

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

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.

Udon, or Japanese wheat noodle

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.