Osechiii

Today, I would like to introduce Japanese traditional dish “Osechi”.

I think some people might right about same topic…

Anyway I hope you understand the real meaning of it, and develop an interest in traditional dish in Japan.

This is Osechi, I think everyone knows what it is.

Osechi is food prepared for New Year and we usually eat it during the first three days of January.

Also it is all prepared before New Year’s Day so woman don’t have to cook during that period.

The ingredients of Osechi depend on region, so it is a little bit different for each.

Most Japanese people enjoy traditional New Year’s Osechi dishes at this time of year.

The foods in the Osechi each have a special meaning associated with good luck.

I want to explain these foods.

Black beans

It means we work hard and live in health.

Herring roe

It symbolizes a wish to be gifted with children.

Dried sardine

It symbolizes a wish to get a rich harvest of rice.

Shrimp

It symbolizes a wish to stay healthy until we stoop.

Seaweeds

It means delight or joy.

Chestnuts

it means wealth and riches because the color of chestnuts is gold or yellow. So it is lucky food in it.

White and red Namasu

I don’t know how to say Namasu in English.

In japan, white and red means lucky and it symbolizes a wish for peace.

The world's beers

I got a unique present from my uncle, which is various kinds of BEER from the world.

Personally, I don’t like beer, I prefer wine to beer…lol

So I gave it to my boyfriend.

Amazingly, he tried some of them before!

Because I've never even seen it!

Anyway I want to introduce them.

From left…

Ⅰ Tiger (Singapore)

Ⅱ SINGHA (Thailand)

Ⅲ 333 (Vietnam)

Ⅳ SOL (Mexico)

Ⅴ FOSTER'S (Australia)

Ⅵ TSINGTAO (China)

ⅠTiger (Singapore)

Tiger is Singapore's first locally brewed beer. It is available in more than 60 countries worldwide including the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and various countries in the Middle East, Europe and Latin America.

-Product specifics-

Alcohol content:  4~5 %

ⅡSINGHA (Thailand)

Singha is from Thailand. It is the only beer that the royal admitted. A top bird represents the royal family of Thailand.

It is a bit spicy. So if you like spicy one, you will like it!

-Product specifics-

Alcohol content: 5 %

Ⅲ333 (Vietnam)

333 is a famous beer in Vietnam with a market share exceeding 70%.

333 Premium Beer is now very popular in Vietnam and widely accepted in The United States, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, and Australia.

In Vietnam, 3 is

-Product specifics-

Alcohol content: 5 %

ⅣSOL (Mexico)

SOL is Mexican beer. It is fruity and easy to drink even for me!

I guess it is lemon flavor.

The mane “SOL” means sun or sunshine. As you can see the color of beer is very yellow. You can enjoy it visually.

-Product specifics-

ABV: 4.5%

Alcohol Units: 1.5 per 33cl. bottle

Calories: 132 per bottle

FOSTER’S (Australia)

Foster’s is an internationally distributed Australian beer.

I tried it last night, it was not too bitter.

compared to Japanese beer, it is easy to drink for those who get drunk easily.

-Product specifics-

Alcohol content: 5% alcohol by volume

TSINGTAO (China)

This is one of the oldest beers in China. According to the internet, Tsingtao is produced with spring water from Laoshan, a mountain area famous throughout China.

-Product specifics-

Alcohol content: 3.8% alcohol by weight, 4.8% alcohol by volume

Calorie Content: 157 calories per 12-ounce serving

Fat Content: 0 gm.

From here on, Im going to introduce Japanese beer!

Many kinds of beers are sold in Japan.

I've never tried most of them, but I want to introduce this beer to compare with above beers.

you know well it is widely konwn beer in Japan.

YEBIS has a long history in the beer industry.

When I took a sip to try it, I found out that it doesn't taste bitter.

and it was a lot easier to drink than I expected.

 I rarely drink beer, but it was a good chance to experience different kinds of beers from the world.

If you become interested in those beers I introduced, you can get them even if you are in Japan.

Or you can go to the website!

KUIS lunch

Do you bring your lunch every day?

Or you have lunch in a school cafeteria?

In my case, I bring my lunch box almost everyday.

I would like to introduce our school lunch menu and an interesting effort with KUIS lunch.

Curry and Udon

This is one of my favorite food and most Japanese know what it is.

Just like the name implies, it is curry with noodles. The Japanese have been eating curry and it can hardly be called foreign food in Japan. I think Curry and noodles are Japanese ways of eating. At this time of year, it will warm you up.

Fried chicken and hamburger

It is popular with boys because it’s got plenty of volume and it’s like a dreamy lunch including what boys like. lol

My boyfriend eats it every lunch just because he likes it and reasonable compared with others.

Curry and rice

This is a different one from first one I introduced above. It is with rice, not noodle.

I think it is that everyone likes, so there are some dishes which are based on curry.

Negitoro-don

It is exactly Japanese style lunch. “Don” is an abbreviation for “Donburi”. It is rice bowl with fresh tuna and green onion. It looks sooo yummy!

I don’t know why it is called Negitoro, but I guess Negi means green onion, and Toro is fatty tuna meat. If you eat it with soy souse, it would be more delicious!

These rice bowls are for a limited time only, and we can enjoy local different kinds of rice bowls. I just want to introduce them simply.

Buda-don(Hokkaido)

It is obviously pork bowl. Among the wide variety of rice bowls, I think beef rice bowl is well known in Japan, but it is also popular.

Bakudan(Aomori)

I’ve never eaten and even heard it before so no idea what it is…

But from what I’ve seen, it has seafood-laden bowl. And I think the thing in the middle is squid.

Aburafu-don(Miyagi)

This is also new for me. I’ve never tried. Aburafu looks like French bread and it is cut into like this size…then put on the rice. I just wander what the taste is like.lol

Shirasu and sakuraebi-don(Shizuoka)

It looks soooo delicious! But unfortunately I haven’t eaten it…

As you can see it is white bait and small shrimp bowl.

Kastuo-don(Kouchi)

It is bonito which is roasted the surface over the fire with green onion.

Lastly, I want to introduce this lunch in KUIS.

Do you know T lunch?

Of cause it is a lunch menu, but if you eat it, you can donate your lunch money to disadvantaged children in developing countries. And also this lunch is really healthy. There are a lot of people who are suffering from obesity and diseases due to excessive calorie intakes not only in Japan but also in many developed countries. This effort is people who are taking too much calories give the poor calories which they need.

The aim through this lunch is eating healthy food and donating money to people in poor countries. 20 yen for each lunch will be donated. You might think it is not enough for them, but it can supply staple food called Posho to them.

(this is Posho)

I think it is really good effort to donate money with eating lunches. We don’t have much opportunity to think food we eat and the poor eat. We can easily throw away the leftovers. People in developed counties like us are not suffering from poverty and starvation. In addition this, it is healthy, so if you are concerned about your calories, you would better try it!

Hot Pot

The most favored winter dish in Japan is nabe that many things are cooked together in a pot and shared with others.

It is very typical Japanese food which keeps our body warm and helps our body healthy by the way in which it is used. I ate a hot pot yesterday because I had a bad stomach ache. Japanese nabe has a lot of vegetables and we can cook whatever our favorite flavor.  It has a variety of cooking so we can choose the flavors depend on the condition of our body or your mood.

As I said there are different kinds of hot pot used local foodstuff in Japan, so in this time I would like to introduce some of them.

鍋のラインナップ ●北海道・・・・・　石狩鍋、三平汁 ●東北　 ・・・・・　芋煮、きりたんぽ鍋、しょっつる鍋 ●関東　・・・・・・　おでん、ねぎま鍋、すき焼き、深川鍋、あんこう鍋 ●中部　・・・・・・　静岡おでん、ほうとう鍋、名古屋風おでん、鮭のっぺい、かにちり ●近畿　・・・・・・　はりはり鍋、うどんすき、鯛の明石鍋、飛鳥鍋 ●中国・四国・・　土手鍋、ふぐちり ●九州・沖縄・・　水炊き、だんご汁、もつ鍋、さつま汁、沖縄風おでん

This is Japanese map which tells which areas have what kinds of hot pot. Im sorry I just found Japanese one, not written by English.

Hokkaido area colored orange is famous for “Ishikarinabe”. The reason why it is called “Ishikari” is the area where this hot pot is eaten has a river called Ishikari, so Ishikari nabe is named after the river. Besides this, the hot pot has salmons which are captured in Ishikari river.

This hot pot is bean paste (miso) flavor and used lots of vegetables and sea foods. It is exactly local hot pot in Hokkaido.

Tohoku area colored brown is famous for “Imoni” and “Kiritannpo”.

This one is called Imoni just because it is used Japanese potatoes which are sticky paste and a little bit different from potatoes we usually eat. It is soy souse flavor and I guess it is familiar to our Japanese tastes.

This is a Kiritanpo hot pot and Kiritannpo is local foodstuff in Akita prefecture. You may don’t know what Kiritanpo is. It is made of rice and it is a circular in shape which is pierced in the center as you can see it front side. I tried it once when I went to Akita. When I first saw it, I thought it was rice cake but it wasn’t.

 

What I tried is this kipitannpo, not hot pot. But it was really nice and I didn’t feel like eating rice.

Kanto area colored green is famous for “Oden”, “Sukiyaki”, “Ankounabe” and others.

This hot pot is really famous all over Japan which is called “Oden”. I think it is also familiar to foreign people. As you can see it has a lot of ingredients which are eggs, Japanese radish, fish minced one, dried kelp or you can put whatever you want into it. In addition this, we can easily have it in convenience stores and surprisingly it is tasty! The tastes are a bit different in each convenience stores, so if you tried them all, you can teach me which one is the best!

Tyubu area colored light green is famous for “Houtounabe”.

It is famous hot pot in Yamanashi prefecture. It has pumpkins, noodles and other lots of vegetables. I tried it once and I noticed that this noodle is not common one we usually eat. It was thinner than I had known. I never tried it before so I was kind of surprised but it was really yummy.

Kinki area colored red is famous for “Harihari nabe”

I don’t know why it is called “Harihari” but it used to cook with whale flesh and famous in Kansai area. Ingredients are pork in stead of whale flesh, tofu, radish, mushrooms. It looks the way of cooking is quite easy but I guess the taste would be nice.

Shikoku, Tyugoku are famous for “Dote nabe”.

It is famous in Hiroshima prefecture. You can see soy beans paste is put on the edge of hot pot and we eat it by disolving gradually. This hot pot has oysters, tofu and lots of vegetables. I’ve never seen like it before. We usually eat soy beans or souse flavored ones which are mixed altogether but this Dote nabe is not cooked together, soy beans paste and water. It is unfamiliar hot pot even for Japanese like me.

Kyusyu area is famous for “Motsu nabe”.

I love it! I really love it the best of all hot pots. I didn’t know that Motsu nabe came from Kyusyu area. The feature of this hot pot is cooking with Motsu(I don’t know how to say it in English, sorry) and lots of vegetables. I tried it many times and every time I finished eating it, I eat it as porridge of rice using remaining soup. It is sooooooo yummy, I highly recommend it!

This is all I wanted to introduce hot pots throughout Japan.

If you know other hot pot that I didn’t mention here, let me know! I love to know what other hot pots are in Japan.

lovely lunch box!!

Do you know “Kyaraben”?

Have you ever made “Kyaraben”?

I guess it is really popular among parents who have kindergarten child.

Kyaraben is just lunch boxes in Japanese “Obento” but it is not common one that you guess.

Look at this photo!!

This is my first Kyaraben and it is exactly what I am talking about.

I made it for my boyfriend and he was soooooo surprised because he had never seen it.

Kyaraben is decollated and designs for characters whatever your favorite ones.

 As you see, I made snoopy lunch box just because I like snoopy.

 When people make it, they follow the example of characters and try to make it look like them as much as possible.

 Now you understand what it is.

I think “Kyaraben” is very Japanese one because it is of course for eating but at the same time, we can enjoy it visually.

From my experience, making Kyaraben would take a bit longer time than usual one.

 But the reason why people make it for someone is for just rejoice.

 They must be happy to make it if they could see children’s happy smiling faces.

 I didn’t make it for kids, but I just wanted him to please with it.

Now I introduce my Kyaraben!

You might be surprised with my efforts.lol

 They are beyond common lunch boxes.

It is obviously snoopy with his friends. I still remember when I made it.

It took 2 hours because I cut dried laver seaweed into tiny little pieces to make their faces.

 You can’t imagine how hard it was. But after I finished making, I was really satisfied!!

This character "Totoro” is really famous for Japanese. 

It was much easier than snoopy one.

First, I made Totoro’s body with rice and put dried laver seaweed on his stomach and face. And you can see black balls called “Makkurokurosuke” beside him. I just rapped rice with seaweed.

You might notice that seaweeds are essential materials to follow the example of characters.

So if you are interested in maing Kyaraben, you would better using it to make your lunch box real. 

There are many people who make more amazing and high puality lunch boxes than mine.

And we can get Kyaraben recipes in book stores and on the internet.

If you became interested, you can ask me and find imformation on the internet.