PROJECT Springtime Sweets

PROJECT Springtime Sweets

洋菓子・yōgashiWestern-Style Confectionery Japan’s food culture includes ingredients, techniques and dishes that have been adopted and/or adapted from non-Japanese sources.  One large category is confectionery. Earliest influences were from the Portuguese in the...
PROJECT Temari Sushi

PROJECT Temari Sushi

This KITCHEN PROJECT  features temari-zushi, bite-sized spheres of tart rice topped with various ingredients. HINA MATSURI is celebrated on March 3 and during the weeks leading up to it, and for several weeks thereafter, scattered chirashi-zushi and/or temari-zushi ...
PROJECT Bean-Throwing for Setsubun

PROJECT Bean-Throwing for Setsubun

Bean-Throwing for Setsubun Mamé maki (bean-throwing for Setsubun) tosses ogres outside (with dried beans) and brings good fortune inside (with dried beans). Fuku mamé (dry-roasted “good luck” soybeans) can be black or white (beige, really). FUKU wa...
PROJECT Noodle-Slurping

PROJECT Noodle-Slurping

NOODLE-SLURPING Anyone who has ever spent time in Japan, or regularly eats at Japanese restaurants, knows  (all too well)  the sound of slurping. Noodles, for sure, but soup, tea and other liquids, too. Although noodles, soup and beverages are part of every food...
PROJECT Kayaku Gohan

PROJECT Kayaku Gohan

Vegetables cooked into RiceKayaku (Takikomi) Gohan加薬 (炊き込み) ご飯 In different parts of Japan, rice that is cooked in a flavored liquid with a variety of ingredients (that went to flavoring that liquid) goes by various names. The most generic is takikomi because it...
PROJECT Serving Chawan Mushi

PROJECT Serving Chawan Mushi

PROJECT: Serving Steamed Foods Piping Hot This PROJECT is about serving chawan mushi, a dish that requires heatproof cups to cook the egg custards in and to bring them piping hot to table. Because Japan’s food culture places importance on the presentation of...