This is the second of our Bento menu series. Bento is a portable packed meal, usually eaten for lunch in Japan. You can buy bento at bento shops, convenience stores, grocery stores, train station shops – pretty much anywhere there. However, as we always say, the home-made kind is the best! And it’s not hard to make at all.
Dango is a general name for small ball-shaped mochi dumplings. Usually the mochi itself is not sweetened, but toppings and sauces are. Dango are often skewered on bamboo sticks so they are easier (and more fun!) to eat. Dango are a more casual and everyday kind of traditional Japanese sweet (how elegant could it be being on skewers?) than some other formal desserts used in tea ceremony and such.
Edamame have become so popular outside Japan today. Edamame is green (young) soy beans in pods. It is usually served as an appetizer with your favorite drinks. There are frozen Edamame you can buy all year round so you might not realize that Edamame is actually in season in summer and started as a summer food. So in the middle of a hot summer, when you drink ice cold beer before dinner, you eat Edamame watching an evening baseball game on TV. This is the absolute right way to eat it in Japan (or it was, 20 years ago).
It is very hard to buy fresh Edamame in the US, but frozen works just fine. Salt is the only seasoning we use, but you can experiment with something else if you want. There are shelled Edamame, too, but we recommend to use the ones in pods. It’s like peanuts. Yeah, it is easy to eat just the beans, but it’s really not the same. Edamame doesn’t have to be an appetizer you eat only at restaurants. Serve hot or cold, however you like. Just don’t forget your beer!
Soba (buckwheat) noodles are very popular in Japan and today outside Japan too. There are many varieties of Soba dishes with different toppings and sauces. Soba noodles can be served in hot broth or with a cold dipping sauce. The recipe here is cold Soba with Daikon Oroshi (grated Daikon radish). It is very refreshing and great for Japan’s hot and humid summer.
Hijiki Nimono is another home-cooking Japanese dish for everyday meals. Hijiki has a slender strip or thread-like shape. Typically, dried hijiki is sold in very small clumps, and when soaked in water, it becomes slightly elongated and stretched. It is often seasoned strongly so that it lasts for a few days and is ready to eat at any time. It is often found in bento boxes, and is a great side dish in meals any time of a day. Hijiki Nimono is also one of the healthiest foods among Japanese food.
Tatsutaage is like Karaage, seasoned and deep-fried meat and fish. Here we lightly marinaded Saba (mackerel) with soy sauce and Sake, rolled in Katakuriko (potato starch), and deep-fried. It is an easy and very satisfying dish perfect for dinner.
Yakitomorokoshi is grilled corn brushed with soy sauce. It is loved by Japanese people at fairs and festivals and it is one of the most popular staples of street vendors. The smell of grilled soy sauce is so tasty and appetizing. We find the sweetness from summer corn and the saltiness of soy sauce are the best match.
There are lots of recipes to make salads using Daikon radish in Japan. Daikon is a very common vegetable Japanese people use all year round for everyday meals (although it is in season in winter). This Daikon Salad can be prepared with a very easy and tasty Ponzu based dressing in no time.
Kasutera (Castella) is an old-fashioned Japanese sponge cake that is loved by everyone from the young to the old. It is sweeter and moister than western sponge cakes which are often designed to be eaten with cream or some kind of frosting. You can eat Kasutera as is, and it is perfect for tea time with green tea.
Spaghetti Neapolitan sounds like Italian food from its name, but it is a quite Japanese food. Spaghetti Neapolitan is spaghetti pan-fried with onion and bell pepper, and seasoned with ketchup. Don’t say “Spaghetti with ketchup? Ew.” It tastes better than you think (Omurice is not so bad, right?). It was more popular a couple of decades ago, but it is still great; an easy to make at home kind of pasta in Japan.