Sushi rolls and zakkokumai onigiri

The Pioneer Woman shows how to make some unique, scrumptious-looking sushi rolls, while La Fuji Mama gives us a recipe for mouth-watering zakkokumai onigiri.


Thank you so much, ladies!



The glorious Donewell Roll.


—Mellow Monk

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How to find Tokyo's best noodles

Start by checking out this slideshow and the accompanying article.


I am a huge fan of tonkotsu ramen. How about you?



Absolute heaven for a ramen aficionado: a "deep tonkotsu broth with its hint of bonito flavor . . . slices of pork, their edges caramel-sweet . . . the bite of the noodles [and] the egginess of the soft-cooked egg."


—Mellow Monk

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Sake basics

With New Year's just around the corner, now is a good time to learn the basics of sake.

As the video below shows, quality sake begins with the planting of quality rice.




—Mellow Monk

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Delectable natural natto

I was recently fortunate enough to try Megumi Natto, a brand of naturally made natto crafted in California by Japan Traditional Foods. I was completely knocked out by the fresh, fragrant flavor. Good natto truly is a culinary delight, and Megumi Natto is truly the real deal.


This natto is also such a wonderful change of pace from the made-in-Japan natto I usually have, which, by the time it reaches my shores, just isn't the same after weeks of cold storage aboard container ships.


And that mass-market natto also contains MSG, whereas Megumi Natto doesn't.


The Megumi website is chock full of scrumptious recipes, including natto soba salad, shown below in all its mouthwatering glory.





—Mellow Monk

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Uniquely Japanese Christmas cakes

In Japan, Christmas is a relatively recent import, but like any country does when importing a new custom, Japan has made its own tweaks to the holiday.


For instance: small, elegant, and for the most part absolutely scrumptious Christmas cakes.



From Mitsukoshi in Nihonbashi. Price: ¥3,150 (about US$36). Did I mention that these super-elegant cakes can also be super-expensive? Cakes from less swanky shops are much more affordable but still very tasty—and they all go great with green tea, naturally.


—Mellow Monk

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Mikan marmalade and soba noodles

The always excellent Kyoto Foodie shows how to make aomikan marmalade, and the equally excellent FX Cuisine has a compelling photo essay of a class on making soba noodles in Tokyo.





—Mellow Monk

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Mochi-pounding video

Lest anyone doubt it, making mochi the traditional way is hard work:




—Mellow Monk

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How to make taiyaki, by Cooking with Dog

"Cooking with Dog" presents how to make taiyaki:




—Mellow Monk

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Bentos and Lafcadio

My monkish instincts tell me that today is double feature Friday, so I present to you Homemade Bento Boxes and Visiting Lafcadio Hearn's Japan.


And as an added bonus, more about Lafcadio Hearn and the bento slideshow's accompanying article.





—Mellow Monk

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If you like Japanese food, you'll just love Just Hungry and Just Bento

A sister site of the super well-done Japanese food site Just Hungry is the equally excellent Just Bento.



"Spring pasta and chickpea salad bento."


—Mellow Monk

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Coffee in a can from a vending machine is big (and manly) in Japan

It's interesting, if you think about it, that Japan's beverage industry decided to market canned coffee as a manly drink.


For instance there's Suntory's Boss, whose label features an iconic man who looks suspiciously like Ernest Hemingway.


I don't see why it wouldn't be possible to market green tea as a manly drink. After all, we green tea drinkers include some pretty tough monks, for instance.



Just a few of the wide variety of canned coffee drinks sold out of Japan's ubiquitous vending machines.


—Mellow Monk

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Roll reversal: American sushi

Sushi is popular in America—and worldwide, for that matter—not just among those who eat but also among those who cook, and these sushi chefs are putting their own personal and cultural touch on their culinary creations:





—Mellow Monk

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Scrumptious Japanese food photos!

Japanese cuisine as a reputation among some as being exotic—if not downright strange at times—but everyday food in the land of the rising sun is actually quite approachable:



Yummy—grilled salmon with kabosu; simmered deep-fried tofu and mizuna; avocado and tomato salad; rice; and potato miso soup.


—Mellow Monk

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Super takoyaki balls in Tokyo

This Is Gonna Be Good—a great blog that, "in the spirit of Tony Bourdain, treats food as adventure"—reviews the fare offered by a takoyaki food van in Akihabara.



Mobile food factories like this are a common sight throughout Japan, although perhaps not quite as ubiquitous as vending machines.


—Mellow Monk

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A life of bento

From preschool to high school to the golden years—Just Bento chronicles the wonderful variety of Japanese bentos that are eaten in Japan in each stage of life.



Even this collage gives only a tiny glimpse of the truly varied and wide world of bento. And please do not even think of washing down your bento with anything other than green tea.


—Mellow Monk

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Wagashi, traditional Japanese sweets

This matcha parfait in bamboo is only one of many delicacies featured in the set "Wagashi."


Wagashi are traditional Japanese confections and are crafted to be eaten with—and complement the taste of—green tea.





—Mellow Monk

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Food art and the Tiger's Nest

Food that looks good just seems to taste that much better, and here are some Japanese bentos so artfully crafted that they almost seem too good to eat.



The bell pepper basket is a nice touch.




I also found a beautiful photo of Bhutan's amazing Tiger's Nest monestary, which looks like the perfect place for getting away from cell phones and telemarketers:



I think I see Bruce Wayne in there.


—Mellow Monk

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Alright, which one of you wise guys put the eel in my drink?

In Japan broiled eel is considered a "summer stamina" food — something that gives you energy in the oppressive heat but without weighing you down.


So, for those folks unable to stop by their local unagi-ya, a beverage company created the next best thing: broiled eel-flavored soda, named "Eel Rising" (Unagi Nobori).


Even the name suggests power and energy. Don't you feel invigorated already?



This could be one of those times that you actually hope it's artificially flavored.


—Mellow Monk

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Fugu, a fishy Japanese cuisine to die for (literally)

Food critic Adam Platt describes firsthand what it's like to eat "the world's most dangerous meal":

The tingling feeling in the back of my throat is now reaching defcon 2 levels. It feels less phantom with every bite. Was this, at long last, my restaurant critic’s Armageddon, my last meal on earth?

To find out Adam's fate, read the whole story.



Uh, guys, is that how you're supposed to serve fugu?





—Mellow Monk

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Sushi art

It's sushi, and you can eat it, but it's also art. Edible art.



It may be art, but that doesn't mean you can hang it on your wall.


—Mellow Monk

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A rice revolution

A professor at Cornell University has developed a farming system that boosts the harvests of rice fields. Amazingly, he does this without relying on agrichemicals or genetic engineering.


Instead, professor Normal Uphoff's System of Rice Intensification is a perfect example of finding a counterintuitive, outside-the-box solution to a problem:

Harvests typically double, he says, if farmers plant early, give seedlings more room to grow and stop flooding fields. That cuts water and seed costs while promoting root and leaf growth.

Professor Uphoff, your timing couldn't be better.



Norman T. Uphoff of Cornell University.


—Mellow Monk

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Black watermelon fetches record price

A black watermelon that sold for over six thousand dollars is yet another news item you can file under "Japan's black food boom."



Try this and you'll never go back.


—Mellow Monk

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The neighborhood tofu maker

This is a great photo of a small neighborhood tofu dealer in the city of Amagasaki. The blogger who took the photo writes [Japanese text only] that the shop has been in business since 1961. You can see how time has stood still here while the rest of the neighborhood developed.


Independent tofu makers who actually make their tofu on the premises are a rarity nowadays even in Japan.


Ah, fresh tofu . . . there's nothing like it!



A customer prepares to head home with her freshly made tofu. (Now maybe the city of Amagasaki can be known for something other than that horrible train wreck.)


—Mellow Monk

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Nikko's soba festival

The Imaichi area of the historical Nikko region is known for its buckwheat and in fact registers the second-largest harvest in all of Tochigi Prefecture. The bountiful nature, cool climate, and pristine water from the Nikko mountain range are perfect for cultivation, and the buckwheat grown there is renowned for its fragrance and sweet taste.


Imaichi's reputation for delicious buckwheat noodles (soba) goes back hundreds of years, when the town developed as a stopover point for people pilgrimaging to Nikko along the Nikko tree-lined road. Soba became popular as a quick, easy meal for weary travelers and soon became firmly entrenched in the area’s culinary culture.


Today, Imachi has over 30 shops offering their own handmade soba noodles. Many visitors enjoy comparing the different tastes of each shop’s unique recipe. In March of every year, the town is host to the National Handmade Soba Eating Contest.


This year, the soba-eating contest was held on March 23. Alright, I didn't get the word out in time for that, but it's not too late to make plans to attend the Nikko Soba Festival, which is held every November to commemorate the buckwheat harvest.



At last November's Soba (Buckwheat) Festival.


—Mellow Monk

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Sushi chocolate for Valentine's Day

Quirky Japanese retailer Tokyu Hands is offering some very quirky gift ideas for Valentine's Day, including sushi chocolate—sushi-shaped sweets in which the shari (sushi rice) portion is chocolate and the neta (sliced fish or octopus or whatever) is some sort of sweet. (The article doesn't specify.)


The wasabi packets (see photo below) that come with the sushi set contain wasabi-flavored chocolate balls.


Other special Valentine's treats include eclairs that look like deep-fried breaded shrimps (ebi furai).


So far as I can tell, these items aren't available in the U.S., but if someone knows otherwise, please let us know!


[Source: Mainichi Shinbun]



Q: What is it that looks like sushi but tastes like chocolate? A: Sushi chocolate!



A photo from the Tokyu Hands page at the Yahoo! Japan job-search site. Unfortunately, Tokyu Hands is not hiring now.


—Mellow Monk

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Japan's Martha Stewart

... minus the prison stripes, that is. (Sorry, I just couldn't resist.)


Harumi Kurihara is more than a mere TV show host. She is "a brand that encompasses restaurants, housewares stores, a magazine and more than 20 cookbooks that have sold more than 7 million copies. (Not bad for someone who began working at age 36.)"


GlobalAtlanta interview with Harumi Kurihara (through an interpreter)





Harumi Kurihara at work in her home in Tokyo.



Harumi's 2nd cookbook published in America.


—Mellow Monk

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Babyrice

Only in Japan: baby-sized bags of rice imprinted with your newborn's picture.


The rice bags, called by the brand name Dakigokochi ("huggability" or "huggables"), are the brainchild (pun intended) of a rice shop in Kitakyushu and are a combination birth announcement and birth gift, both customs in Japan.


The bag is printed not only with your baby's portrait but also name, date of birth, and weight. And as an added gimmick the shop adds just enough rice so that the bag weighs exactly the same as your little bundle of joy.



Rice bag announcements for little Sakumi (left) and Juki (right), who weigh in at 2,790 and 3,380 grams (6.1 and 7.4 pounds), respectively.


—Mellow Monk

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In pictures: Japan's food crisis

The current upswing in world food prices is particularly worrying to Japan, which imports a big chunk of its foodstuffs and so ranks 124th in the world in food security.


Part of the problem is the shift in recent years to more Western-style foods, especially among young people, many of whom prefer burgers to broiled fish or—say it ain't so!—bottled green tea to traditional brew-it-yourself tea.


Much of this bottled tea is made from tea leaves grown on massive corporate farms in places like China or Brazil, but not Mellow Monk: our tea is grown on family-owned and -operated farms in Aso, Japan.



At a small eatery near Shinjuku Station in Tokyo, office workers wind down with food and drink before heading home.


—Mellow Monk

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On Christmas, sushi cake for kids with allergies

The term "sushi cake" can mean one of two things: (1) a cake that looks like sushi or (2) sushi that looks like a cake.


The second type is becoming popular in Japan at Christmastime, a time when people traditionally buy or bake a sugary Wester-style cake. (Japan's "Christmas cake" tradition is thought to have been imported from Britain.)


However, more and more kids in Japan are allergic to milk, eggs, or wheat—the prime ingredients of cake. In fact, one source I came across says that 10 percent of kids in Japan can't eat cake because of an allergy to one or more of the ingredients. The cause, some say, is the Westernization of the Japanese diet and the chemical additives used in Japanese mass-market foods in general.

Consequently, parents of kids with allergies had given up on Christmas cakes—until someone hit on the Zen-like idea of a cake that isn't a cake.


That someone was a Mr. Toyoshima, owner of Enmusubi, a bakery in Nagasaki that makes the cake in the photo below. Mr. Toyoshima said he was inspired by sad stories that customers told him of their allergic kids celebrating their birthdays by sticking candles in manju.


Mr. Toyoshima's sushi cake is made with pressed sushi rice and slices of ham, cucumber, and strawberries (but no fish). Even kids with the most common food allergies can dig in. "I want kids to believe that Santa sees all children as equal," he explains.


If you live in Japan, you can buy one of these cakes online. And if you're passing through the Suzuka area of Nagasaki, you can pick up one of these sushi cakes at the Suzuka Pass Farmers Market [Japanese-only website].


[Story from Asahi.com and other sources]



Mr. Toyoshima's surprisingly scrumptious-looking sushi cake. If you ask nicely, you might be able to get your local sushi chef to make one for you.


—Mellow Monk

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Squid-ink cake and other black foods

Asia's black food craze is starting to spread to the rest of the world.


"Black food" doesn't mean food dyed black for Halloween. It means food that's either naturally black or dyed with something naturally black—such as black soy beans or squid ink. The latter is said to have anticancer properties and other health benefits.


The photo below show one example of Japan's black food craze, a squid-ink cake roll sold online.


Using squid ink isn't unheard of in the West. The Italians, for instance, enjoy spaghetti al nero di seppia and squid ink risotto.



Wait until your guests have finished their slice, then ask them "So, how did you like the squid ink cake?"


—Mellow Monk

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Izakayas, part II

The other day I linked to a story about Japan's "small-plate pubs," or izakayas. Here's a little more info about this type of restaurant.


Izakaya-style eating essentially means ordering nothing but appetizers: Each dish has only a small amount of food and is shared by everyone at the table. Of course, if you really like a certain dish, you simply order more than one.


The best thing about the izakaya approach to dining is that it lets you sample a lot of different foods in one meal instead of committing yourself to a single entrée (and casting envious glances at the plates of fellow diners who made a better choice than you did).


In Japan, people tend to stay longer at an izakaya than they would at an ordinary restaurant. The idea is to order food in waves, starting out light appetizers, working up to a few substantial tummy-filling dishes, and then switching to lighter fare to nibble as the party works on its second (or third or fourth) round of drinks.


On the other hand, the strength of an izakaya is also its downside. Because people stay longer, when an izakaya fills up it tends to stay full for a long time.


As Master Po would say to Grasshopper, every good idea has its disadvantage.



The interior of Wann, an izakaya in Seattle.


—Mellow Monk

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Izakaya, Japan's small-plate pubs, in America

You don't have to enjoy the traditional Japanese bar snack of salted squid guts called shiokara to appreciate the tapas-style offerings of Japanese pubs known as izakayas.

At the Nihon in San Francisco's Japantown.


—Mellow Monk

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Ramen blog

If you like ramen, then you'll love The Ramen Blog.



News from the Ramen Blog: Beef bowl chain Yoshinoya acquires Osaka-based ramen chain Ichiban Honbu.


—Mellow Monk

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Japanese whiskey blog

"Nonjatta" (literally "I drank it all") is a blog about the world of Japanese whiskey.

Japan, incidentally, is the world's second-largest producer of single-malt whiskey.





—Mellow Monk

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Sushi shocker--it can be less healthy than pizza

Say it ain't so—food writer Trevor Corson says that sushi in America is not necessarily healthier than pizza.

"What we think of as sushi in the United States has become Americanized and that involves more fatty ingredients while the rice tends to be sweet," Corson told Reuters in an interview.

Looks great! Just go easy on the mayo next time, okay?


—Mellow Monk

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Eat like the Japanese, live to be 100

Eating like the French? That's so last year. It's time to take a look at the Japanese diet and its benefits:

It's true that Japan has one of the world's lowest obesity rates. Only 3 percent of Japanese women are obese, compared with 13 percent in France and 33 percent in the United States, according to the International Association for the Study of Obesity.

The Japanese also are global longevity champs, particularly the people of Okinawa -- home to the world's largest population of centenarians.

This article even has a recipe for "Aromatic steamed salmon with shallots and broccoli." Hmm... Sounds yummy! Is it too early to break for lunch?

—Mellow Monk

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The fall and rise of the world's most famous sushi chef

Although one of the world's most famous sushi chefs today, back in 1987 Nobu Matsuhisa was deep in debt after his first restaurant burned down the weekened it opened in Anchorage, Alaska.

That was his low point. It was all "uphill" from there. This goes to show, grasshopper, that it is the uphill climb that leads to the top of the mountain.



"Sushi, anyone?"


—Mellow Monk

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American sushi chefs

Sushi is getting so popular in the United States that Japan can no longer meet the demand for qualified itamae (sushi chefs). Consequently, restaurants are turning to sushi chefs who, although trained here, come originally from anywhere from Vietman to El Salvador.

The article also features a colorful, mouth-watering sushi slideshow.



Sushi chefs aren't just from Japan anymore.


—Mellow Monk

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The seven pillars of Japanese cooking

The author of Japanese Women Don’t Get Old or Fat cites green tea as one of the seven pillars of Japanese cooking.


—Mellow Monk

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R.I.P. to the instant-noodle man

Let us all pause a moment to reflect on the passing of a great man—Momofuku Ando, inventor of instant noodles.



The man who gave the world instant noodles.


—Mellow Monk

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Japan's delectable cream puffs

First the good news about the little pastries made by Japanese cream puff chain Beard Papa's:

The dessert in question contains custard and whipped cream -- speckled with tiny pieces of vanilla bean -- inside an inner shell of choux pastry and an outer layer of pie crust.

Now the bad news: The little buggers pack a whopping 220 calories apiece!

More bad news: Beard Papa's currently has only 13 outlets in the U.S., and none of them take mail orders.

If anyone's tried one of these delicious-sounding treats, please report in!

—Mellow Monk

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