by Elizabeth Andoh | Mar 25, 2025 | Cooking Club
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...
by Elizabeth Andoh | Feb 26, 2025 | Cooking Club
HINA MATSURI is celebrated March 3 and sushi, either a platter of scattered chirashi-zushi and/or temari-zushi (bite-sized spheres of tart rice topped with various ingredients) is often on the menu. KITCHEN CULTURE COOKING CLUB this month is featuring temari-zushi,...
by Elizabeth Andoh | Jan 28, 2025 | Cooking Club
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...
by Elizabeth Andoh | Dec 21, 2024 | Cooking Club
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...
by Elizabeth Andoh | Nov 19, 2024 | Cooking Club
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...
by Elizabeth Andoh | Oct 18, 2024 | Cooking Club
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...
