Tag - japanese-kitchen

 
 

JAPANESE KITCHEN

Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Jun 28, 2013
Watch your summer food pairings
I'll never forget that day during the summer when I was 14. I'd been away in the Yatsugatake Mountains of Honshu with my schoolmates for a rinkan gakkō (a multi-day school trip to the countryside), and on the way back we'd stopped for lunch at a large roadside diner. On the menu was tempura, followed by slices of watermelon. The breakfast at the inn we were staying at was pretty awful, so I dug into my one shrimp and mound of fried vegetables, as well as the sweet, chilled watermelon. But that evening, my body started to complain very emphatically. My stomach felt like it was being twisted around inside. I rolled around on the floor, groaning in pain, for what felt like hours. By the morning the pain was finally gone, but I was weak and worn out for days.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
May 24, 2013
Springtime beans aim for the sky
Throughout most of Japan, June is the rainy season. While all that rainfall is great for rice paddies so that we can have delicious new harvest rice in the fall, it makes it a rather dull month for seasonal produce: The summer's bounty of cucumbers, eggplants and so on comes a bit later. What are in season, though, are the cheerfully green and plump legumes vicia faba, called fava or broad beans in English and soramame in Japanese.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Apr 26, 2013
Katsuo, Japan's ubiquitous tuna
In the world of sushi and sashimi, maguro (tuna, especially bluefin tuna) currently reigns supreme. It's so popular that large specimens of the fish fetch ridiculous, headline-grabbing prices at the Tsukiji wholesale market in Tokyo, and the species is in danger of extinction due to overfishing.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Mar 22, 2013
Why not just add a dollop of mayonnaise?
Newcomers to Japan are often a little taken aback by the many decidedly non-Japanese condiments, such as ketchup and Worcestershire sauce, that are used in everyday cooking. And in particular mayonnaise: Usually reserved for sandwiches, salad dressing and dipping sauces for chilled seafood in the West, is used with abandon in Japan. The popular recipe site Cookpad lists more than 134,000 recipes containing mayonnaise, including hot dishes and desserts. There are even recipes for cakes containing mayonnaise in the batter or the icing.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Feb 22, 2013
Ready for spring's fresh bounty
After an unusually cold winter, the sight of spring produce is particularly welcome, especially the bright yellow-green of nanohana.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Jan 24, 2013
Fish dish that predates your fridge
Before refrigeration became widespread in the late 1950s, fresh, unprocessed fish was only available to the well-to-do or people living on the coasts.
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Dec 28, 2012
Savor the symbolism at New Year's
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Nov 23, 2012
Fresh soba flour is fall's precious prize
The obsession with fresh, seasonal food in Japan extends to things that you may not even think of as having seasons, such as dried flour. Shin-soba-ko (new fall-harvest buckwheat flour, used in soba noodles) is eagerly anticipated every year by Japanese gourmets. While soba flour has two harvests, one from June to July and another from September to November, the fall crop is held in higher regard.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Oct 26, 2012
Bang your gong for dorayaki, Doraemon's favorite snack
Traditional Japanese confections, or wagashi, can take a little getting used to for Western palates: The sticky-gooey texture of mochi (pounded rice) and the sweet an (bean paste) filling that are often used are quite different from most European-style cakes and cookies. But one snack that may suit the wagashi beginner is dorayaki.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Sep 28, 2012
Fall harvest means it's time for new rice
Fall is in the air! With the return of cooler weather, your appetite may be making a comeback too. Luckily, fall is a great time for gourmets to indulge in Japan. There's an abundance of fresh produce in season, and some of the tastiest fish are returning to the colder waters up north. Most of all, it's the time for shin-mai (new-harvest rice). Japanese people can be fanatical when it comes to rice, and the new harvest is eagerly anticipated every year.
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Jul 27, 2012
Shaved ice: the traditional antidote to summer swelter

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