Tamagoyaki is such a Japanese dish. When you just want eggs for breakfast or to add to a bento
Sunomono (Cucumber Salad) is a perfect small side dish. It’s easy to make, healthy to eat, and very refreshing to accompany any main dish. It’s tangy but sweet, who wouldn’t like it?
Japanese cucumbers are much skinnier than American ones. They have much less seeds (or at least much smaller seeds) and thinner skin. You might be able to find Japanese cucumbers at some markets in the US. However, if they are not available, you can use English or Persian cucumbers as substitutes. Especially Persian cucumbers are very similar to Japanese ones. Persian cucumbers are a bit shorter, but it doesn’t matter. Just use one more.
Okonomiyaki is a cabbage pancake covered with Okonomiyaki sauce. Okonomiyaki sauce is a Worcester-based sauce with some sweetener, and it is the crucial flavor of this dish. We like Otafuku brand, but anything you can find is fine. Or you can use Tonkatsu sauce that tastes similar but less sweet.
You hear people say, “I can’t eat sushi (raw fish), but I eat California roll.” California roll is so popular that even people who don’t want to try exotic ethnic food will eat it. It is made of pretty innocuous ingredients for sushi: rice, roasted seaweed (sushi nori), cucumber, avocado, and crab meat. No raw fish, and even the seaweed is hidden inside the roll.
Hand roll sushi is a very popular sushi dish in Japanese home cooking. You need Sushi Rice and sheets of roasted seaweed (sushi nori), but the rest of the ingredients can be just about anything imaginable.
Tuna salad and cucumber were used as fillings for this recipe here, but we also suggest smoked salmon and cream cheese, pan-fried rolled omelet (tamago-yaki), avocado, and lettuce. If you are a more advanced Japanese food person, of course you can use your favorite raw fish, too.
With all the ingredients laid out on the table, people can make their own hand rolls how they like as they eat. It is a perfect food for entertaining friends and families!
Sushi rice is the most important component of sushi making, yet very simple to make. Rice needs to be cooked a little harder for sushi rice than for regular steamed rice, so a little less water is used when cooking. When you master how to make sushi rice, you can make a variety of sushi dishes, such as hand rolls and California rolls.
Dashi or Japanese soup stock is a very important component in traditional Japanese cooking. It is used in soups, stews, boiled vegetables and many other dishes. It is not hard to make at all, but it is one step you have to take before you cook food.
There are different kinds of Dashi you can make from various umami rich ingredients (learn more from our How to Make Dashi post), but in this recipe, we make the simple and traditional broth using some dried bonito flakes (katsuobushi) #ad and water. Dried bonito flakes can be easily found at Japanese supermarkets or online stores.
Chicken Teriyaki is a very popular Japanese food in the US. You can get it at the smallest Japanese restaurant in any town today.Teriyaki means “grilled with shine,” and it is a method of cooking meat and fish. Sugar in teriyaki sauce gives a shine to the food which makes it not only tasty, but also looks more appetizing.
Steamed rice is a staple food for almost any Japanese meal. Japanese rice is soft and sticky compared to other kinds of rice. Rice is called a “main dish” (主食) in Japan since starch is emphasized more than other dishes such as meat, and it is an essential part of Japanese cuisine.