Pork Shogayaki is another popular dish for lunch and dinner in Japan. The flavors of spicy ginger (shoga) and soy sauce with a touch of sweetness from Mirin taste great with steamed rice. It is not as sweet as a typical Teriyaki sauce. This tasty ginger sauce may stimulate your appetite, and you might have to watch out or you’ll be taking a second serving of rice.
Tsukemono are pickled vegetables. There are many kinds that are pickled in many ways, using salt, vinegar, Miso, rice bran, etc. Tsukemono get rich flavors often (but not always) from fermentation in a base like rice bran.
Dinner is the meal everybody is looking forward to the most in the day. It is the biggest and most fulfilling meal of all in many parts of the world. Japanese dinner is the same way. Even if you’re OK to eat a simpler and lighter breakfast of toast and then Udon noodles for lunch, you would like to eat more significant food at night.
An Pan is a Japanese sweet bread with Anko (sweet red bean paste) inside. It is an old-fashioned kind of bread, and one of the most popular snack breads of all time.
An Pan was created in the late 19th century, and it became tremendously popular right away. Although people in Japan were not familiar with bread back then, they got to like An Pan which is similar to traditional Japanese sweets because of the use of Anko.
Barazushi is a kind of sushi with a lot of vegetables mixed in. Bara means “scattered,” describing here that vegetables are mixed into the sushi rice. It is also called Gomokuzushi (vegetable sushi). It is most often prepared at home rather than served at restaurants and is another “mom’s home cooking” kind of dish everyone likes.
Genmai, or brown rice, is of course the healthier choice than its white counterpart, however not everyone likes it. Few people dislike regular rice, but there are many who don’t like brown rice out there. How about you?
Yakiudon is stir-fried Udon noodles with meat and vegetables. It is so easy and quick to make that it is more home cooking rather than restaurant food. Even though Yakiudon isn’t fancy Japanese food, with a lot of vegetables and meat, it is still a very good thing for you to eat. Perfect lunch or a great alternative to a fast food dinner.
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.
If you know you need to bring lunch the next day, just think ahead. Leave some food from dinner aside, and even prepare vegetables before you go to bed. It is busy in the morning for everyone, so keep the Bento making to a minimum in the morning.
Natto is fermented soy beans and is often eaten for breakfast in Japan. It is gooey and slimy, and also notoriously smelly, but it’s a nutritious and healthy food loved by a lot of Japanese people.
Natto is almost always eaten over rice. It is extremely simple to prepare: you mix Natto with soy sauce or Mentsuyu and stir vigorously until forming sticky goo around the beans. Then pour it over hot rice. You can add toppings like chopped green onions and Japanese mustard, but basically that’s it. There can’t be an easier breakfast than this. Natto has a lot of nutrients like vitamin B, K, protein, fiber, calcium, etc. Natto also contains its own enzyme good for preventing blood clots, so they say.
Yudofu (Yu Tofu) is Tofu cooked in hot water (Yu) in a pot. It is a very simple Nabe hot pot dish. Usually the hot water is not actually just water but Kombu (dried kelp) broth to give the dish more flavor. It is typically served with tangy Ponzu sauce for dipping. You can use Mentsuyu instead for dipping sauce if you don’t like Ponzu.