Facts about Japan you may or may not know

1. Being extremely earthquake prone Japan has an average of 1500 earthquakes every year.
2. The number of volcanoes in Japan is approximately 200.
3. Most of the Japanese have rice for/with their breakfast, lunch and dinner.
4. Vandalism rates in Japan are among the least in the world.
5. A vending machine for a variety of daily requirements is installed at practically every corner in Japanese cities.
6. Fruits are forbiddingly expensive in Japan. You could end up paying up to $2 for a single apple or peach.
7. The Japanese love their pizzas topped with mayonnaise and corn.
8. Haiku is Japanese poetry consisting of only 3 lines.
9. Kendo, meaning "the way of the sword’, is Japan’s oldest form of martial arts.
10. Origami is an ancient Japanese art of paper folding.
11. Sushi (popular worldwide) is a Japanese delicacy of rice and fish dipped in vinegar, wrapped in seaweed.
12. Japanese always remove their footwear before entering a home. This is to keep the tatami (mat) clean. The tatami is used for sitting on while eating.
13. The Japanese eat with chopsticks known as hashi.
14. The Japanese will shop daily for their meat, fish and vegetable requirements, as they like all their food fresh and unpreserved. This is one of the prime reasons that small and medium sized refrigerators are sold the most in Japan.
15. Rice is a staple food and served at almost every meal.
16. Miso soup is an all time favorite and could be served for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Its main ingredients are a soybean paste dissolved in a seaweed stock.
17. A traditional Japanese breakfast is steamed rice topped with natto (fermented soy beans).
18. Tea is served with practically all meals.
19. Many women wear platform shoes that are 4 to 6 inches high.
20. Slippers are worn in the house, never shoes.
21. Slippers are never worn while sitting on the tatami to have your meals.
22. Noh, an ancient and very popular type of Japanese theatre can last for up to eight hours.
23. While smoking is allowed practically anywhere in Japan, you are not allowed to smoke in local trains. Long distance trains have got designated smoking zones.
24. Japanese do not submerge themselves into the bath tub and then lather.
25. They soap outside the tub and rinse it off. Only then do they submerge themselves neck deep into the hot water to refresh and relax.
26. Japanese use a lot of fish, beef, pork, chicken and variety of seafood in their cooking. Most of their dishes are mildly spiced, flavored with a variety of soy sauces.
27. Japanese drive on the left, and have their steering wheels on the right, exactly opposite of what it is in America.
28. In Japanese villages there is no need to send invitations for a wedding or a funeral. They are considered community events and the entire village will help in preparing the food, and taking care of all the required arrangements.
29. While eating in Japan never put in your chopstick upright into the bowl. In the past this was the way to offer food to the dead.
30. You enjoy slurping while eating, but can’t do it when people (your family, friends, office staff, guests etc. etc.) are around. Japan is the place for you to be in. Here, you are expected to slurp while having liquids such as soups. If you do not, it is considered that you do not like the food and the host may feel offended.
31. Finally, the Japanese are extremely courteous people. If you require something, they will go out of their way and try to help you

Okonomiyaki

Okonomiyaki is a popular dish in Japan. It consists of a batter made of flour, eggs, cabbage and green onions and other ingredients of your choice. The name means "as you like it" or "what you want" in Japanese.

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour (or yam flour if you can get it)
• 1 cup water (or stock)
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup cabbage, finely sliced into strips (2" long by 1/4" wide)
• 2-3 green onions, chopped into 1/4" rounds (use white part and freshest bit of green part)
• 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese (optional; other cheese may be substituted)
• 10 small slices of chicken, bacon or beef (your choice)

Toppings:

• okonomiyaki sauce (sold at Japanese markets)
• dried bonito flakes
• powdered nori (seaweed)

Directions

1. Mix flour, water and eggs until smooth (about 25-30 strokes with a spoon or whisk; do not overmix.)
2. Gently fold in cabbage, green onions and cheese.
3. Heat a griddle or non-stick frying pan over medium heat. When pan is hot, add 1 tablespoon oil.
4. Add 1/3 cup of batter and flatten slightly. Fry for 2-3 minutes.
5. When pancake is golden brown on bottom, add toppings (chicken, bacon or beef, or other topping of your choice), and press into the batter slightly.Turn the pancake and fry for five minutes or until golden brown on other side.
6. Turn once more and fry topping side up for another minute.

To serve, place the okonomiyaki on a plate, top with bottled sauce, nori, and or bonito flakes. Enjoy!

Yaki nasu

Yaki nasu is one of the most popular traditional Japanese appetizers It is a popular summer food because eggplants are summer vegetable.

Ingredients

• 1 large (375g) aubergine (eggplant)
• vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons miso
• 1.5 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons soup stock
• 1 teaspoon white sesame seeds

Directions

1. Wash the aubergine and cut it into 2.5cm lengthways slices.
2. Brush the cut surfaces with oil.
3. Grill 7 – 10 cm from the source of the heat until the aubergine is tender and browned all over (about 5 minutes).
4. In a small saucepan combine the miso, sugar and soup stock and cook, stirring, over low heat until the mixture is smooth and hot. Do not let it boil.
5. Pour the sauce mixture over the aubergine.
6. In a small frying pan toast the sesame seeds until they jump and sprinkle them over the aubergine.

Servings: 2 persons
Time: 15 mins

Gyudon

Gyudon is often literally translated into English as beef bowl. It is a Japanese dish consisting of a bowl of rice topped with beef and onion simmered in a mildly sweet sauce flavored with dashi, soy sauce and mirin. It also often includes shirataki. Gyudon is a very popular food in Japan, it is commonly served with beni shōga (pickled ginger), shichimi, and a side dish of miso soup. Gyū means "cow" or "beef", and don is short for donburi, the Japanese word for "bowl".

Ingredients

• 200g thinly sliced beef
• 1/2 onion
• 5 grams ginger
• 2 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sake
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon mirin
• 100 millimeters water
• 1/2 teaspoon dashi
• 2 eggs
• beni shōga
• Shichimi
• Scallions
• Steamed Rice

Directions

1. Cut the onion into wedges and separate.
2. Grate ginger, and chop the scallions.
3. Cover two eggs in hot water and let them sit for 20 minutes so they are soft inside and not hard.
4. Boil the beef, and drain the water.
5. Put sake, mirin, soy sauce and sugar into a fry pan.
6. Stir it at medium heat, add beef.
7. Before all sauce evaporates, remove the beef.
8. Add water, dashi, grated ginger and onions.
9. Cover cook, and boil.
10. Mix in the beef, and stir together.
11. Put the steamed rice in a bowl and put the sauced meet and top.
12. Put the soft egg and pickled ginger on top.

Oyakodon

Oyakodon (親子丼?), literally "parent-and-child donburi", is a donburi, or Japanese rice bowl dish, in which chicken, egg, green onions, and other ingredients are all simmered together in a sauce and then served on top of a large bowl of rice. The name of the dish, parent and child donburi, is a poetic reflection of the fact that both chicken and egg are used in the dish.

Ingredients

• 1/4 Cup chicken breasts
• 1/2 Cup chicken broth
• 4 Shiitake mushrooms, soaked
• 1 Onion
• 1 Carrot
• 4 tbsp Soy sauce
• 2 tbsp Sugar
• 1/4 Cup green onions, chopped
• 4 Eggs, beaten
• Salt, according to taste

Directions

1. Cut the chicken and mushroom into strips, and slice the onion.
2. Heat oil in a pan and fry the onions and chicken until the meat is tender.
3. Add the chicken broth and cook on low heat.
4. Now add the carrots and mushroom, and a cook for a few more minutes, stirring.
5. Add soy sauce, salt and sugar and pour the beaten eggs into the chicken mixture.
6. Continue cooking on low heat until the eggs are cooked.

Onigiri

Onigiri (お握り or 御握り; おにぎり?), also known as omusubi (お結び; おむすび?) or rice ball, is a Japanese food made from white rice formed into triangular or oval shapes and often wrapped in nori (seaweed). Traditionally, an onigiri is filled with pickled ume (umeboshi), salted salmon, katsuobushi, kombu, tarako, or any other salty or sour ingredient as a natural preservative. Ingredients

• 2 lb short-grain rice (Japanese short-grain rice)
• Salt to taste
• 3-4 sheets of toasted nori or seaweed, cut into rectangular squares 12 x 5 cm

Possible Fillings:

• Sour plum or umeboshi , ½ tsp per rice ball
• Salted salmon, 1 tsp per rice ball
• Dried bonito flakes mix with little soy sauce, 1 tsp per rice ball
• Kanimayo or minced crabstick with mayonnaise, 1 tsp per rice ball
• Chopped unagi, 1 heaped tsp per rice ball
• Strips of salted dried kelp or shiokonbu, 1 heaped tsp per rice ball

Directions

1. Wash rice gently under running water until the water runs clear.
2. Leave to drain for an hour before cooking the rice in a steamer.
3. After the rice is cooked, remove from heat and cover the rice with a towel to absorb any moisture and leave to stand for 20 minutes so it won’t get too hot when you want to hand-shaped the rice.
4. To prepare the rice, sprinkle some salt onto the palm of one hand and take a handful of rice.
5. Flatten it by making a depression in the middle to put in the chosen filling before molding it back to enclose the fillings and have it shaped into a triangle.
6. Wrap a piece of nori and moisten the end a little bit to seal.

Onigiri is best served at room temperature. If you happens to have the plastic mold of making onigiri, it will make your preparation work much easier. Right after you’ve put in the fillings, mold it a little bit to form a distorted rice ball before fitting it in the plastic onigiri mold and close it on both sides. Voila! You’ll have a triangle onigiri in no time!

Tamagoyaki

Tamagoyaki 卵焼き (also called tamago or dashimaki, literally grilled egg) is a type of Japanese omelette, which is made by rolling together several layers of cooked egg. These usually are prepared in a rectangular omelette pan called a makiyakinabe. In some recipes sake is used. It is served as a Japanese breakfast dish, and often included in bento boxes as well as being a popular sushi topping. There are several types of tamagoyaki, both sweet and savory.

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 3/8 cup dashi (japanese fish soup)
• 1 tbsp mirin (sweet sake) or normal sake (depends on your sweetness preference) *if you dont have sake substitutewith sweet wine
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tbps light-colored soy sauce

Directions

1. Put the eggs into a bowl and add the light-colored soy sauce, salt and mirin.
2. Beat the eggs. When its mixed well enough, add dashi stock to it and mix lightly. (if you mix too much, the dashi stock will lose its flavor)
3. Strain the egg through a sieve. This is the point where you could make the egg look good.
4. Heat a frying pan on medium heat. *Preferably, use a square tamagoyaki pan. Oil the pan
5. Pour a scoop of egg mixture in the pan and spread over the surface.
6. Cook it until half done and roll the egg toward the bottom side.
7. Move the rolled egg to the top side. Oil the empty part of the pan and pour another scoop of egg mixture in the space and under the rolled egg.
8. Cook it until half done and roll the egg again so that the omelet becomes thicker.
9. Cook the omelet until done.
10. If you are using a regular frying pan, shape tamagoyaki on bamboo mat.
11. Cut tamagoyaki into 1-inch thick pieces.

Prep Time: 5 min Cook time: 10 min Serves: 2

Horenso no Ohitashi

Its a common simple traditional side dish that tastes absolutely delicious, rich in flavor from being soaked in broth and soy sauce.

Ingredients:

• 1lb spinach
• pinch of salt
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• 5 tbsp of dashi soup stock (seaweed broth)
• 4 Tbsp katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes)

Directions

1. Wash the spinach thoroughly Boil lots of water in a large pot, add a pinch of salt.
2. Blanch the spinach by dunking in all the spinach and rotating quickly to ensure even blanching, do this for about a minute.
3. Drain and soak the spinach in cold water to cool Squeeze the excess water out of the spinach, bunch by bunch.
4. Mix the soy sauce and the dashi together in a bowl.
5. Put spinach in a serving bowl and pour mixture of soy sauce and dashi. Soak for 20 minutes. Garnish with a bit of roasted katsuobushi to enhance the flavor.

Serving Size: 4
Prep time: 10 minutes

Japan

We are thinking of all the people in Japan and elsewhere who have been affected by this tragedy. May you find the strength and courage from knowing that there are so many who are praying for you and the recovery of your country.

This week we will explore the Japanese cuisine.

Japanese cuisine is based on combining staple foods, typically rice or noodles, with a soup and okazu (おかず) — dishes made from fish, meat, vegetable, tofu and the like — to add flavor to the staple food. These are typically flavored with dashi, miso, and soy sauce and are usually low in fat and high in salt.

For more info on Japanese cuisine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_cuisine

Japanese cuisine is excellent, the only problem is that here in Kenya it very hard to get simple ingredients like seaweed or bonito flakes, the only place i have manged to find some of these ingredients is in a health food shop and they are not exactly cheap so we don't often eat Japanese for this reason.

Miso Ramen

Ramen noodle in miso based soup is called miso ramen. It's one of popular flavors of ramen noodles in Japan. Lots of vegetables can be added in this miso ramen recipe.

Ingredients:
• 1 tsp vegetable oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tsp minced fresh ginger
• 2 oz. ground pork
• 5 oz. bean sprouts, rinsed
• 4 oz. cabbage, chopped
• 2 oz. carrot, cut into thin strips
• 4 cups warm water
• 2 tsp chicken bouillon powder
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 tsp soy sauce
• 4 Tbsp miso paste
• 2 Chukamen (raw Chinese noodles)
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil

Preparation:

Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet or a wok. Add minced ginger and garlic in the skillet and saute pork on medium heat until done. Add carrot, bean sprouts, and cabbage in the skillet and saute together for a few minutes. Pour warm water in the skillet. Season with chicken bouillon powder, sugar, and soy sauce and bring the soup to a boil. Turn down the heat to low, and melt miso in the soup. Add sesame oil at last. Stop the heat. In the meantime, boil lots of water in a large pot. Put Chukamen noodles in the boiling water and cook for a few minutes, or boil noodles, following the package instruction. Drain the noodles and serve into two noodle bowls. Pour hot miso soup over the noodles with ingredients on top.
*Makes 2 servings

Quick Shoyu Ramen Recipe

Shoyu Ramen - Soy Sauce Flavored Ramen

Making delicious ramen noodles isn't easy. Ramen chefs in Japan usually train hard to make good ramen. This is a quick recipe to make soy sauce flavored ramen at home.

Ingredients:
• 2 Chukamen (raw Chinese noodles)
• 1 clove finely chopped garlic
• 1 tsp finely chopped fresh ginger
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 2 cup chicken soup stock
• 1 cup kombu dashi soup stock
• 1 Tbsp sake
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• *For toppings:
• Chopped negi
• Nori (dried seaweed)
• Pepper

Preparation:
Heat sesame oil in a deep pan. Saute chopped ginger and garlic in the pan. Lower the heat. Add chicken soup stock and kombu dashi soup stock in the pan and bring to a boil. Add sugar, salt, sake, and soy sauce in the soup. Run the soup through a strainer. Serve hot soup into individual bowls. In the meantime, boil water in a large pan. Add chukamen noodles in the boiling water and cook for a few minutes. Drain the noodles and serve in the hot soup. Place toppings, such as chopped negi and nori seaweed. Sprinkle some pepper if you would like.
*Makes 2 servings