Cold Natto Soba is a delightful summer dish perfect for days when hot weather suppresses your appetite. Cold soba noodles are easy to swallow, and the dish is rich in nutrients from Natto (fermented soybeans) and other vegetables. This recipe involves minimal cooking on the stove, helping you avoid unnecessary heat. Some may find Natto a little challenging to eat due to its smell and texture, but the delicious Mentsuyu sauce effectively masks some of unwanted Natto flavors. While all the toppings have “slimy” textures, there are good reasons to eat these foods during summer. The slimy componen ..read more

Spring rolls with rice paper, also known as summer rolls, are a popular appetizer or light meal in Vietnamese cuisine. They use a translucent rice paper wrapper, softened by briefly dipping in water. Our version of spring rolls has a Japanese twist. We take the filling of California rolls, minus the rice and nori seaweed, and use it in the spring rolls. The result is interesting and delightful! Instead of Vietnamese vermicelli noodles, we use cooked somen noodles. Our dipping sauce is a simple but tasty combination of soy sauce and wasabi, rather than a complicated peanut sauce. California Spr ..read more

Pork and Cabbage Curry is a simple variation of Curry and Rice using Japanese curry sauce mix. Typical Japanese curry requires some time to stew beef, potatoes, and carrots. This curry features thinly sliced pork and cabbage, which takes significantly less time to cook. The flavor combination of pork, ginger, and cabbage resembles Pork Shogayaki, another popular Japanese dish for lunch and dinner. If you feel like having curry, but you don’t want to spend too much time in the kitchen, try Pork and Cabbage Curry. You can also substitute thinly sliced pork with any other protein of choice such a ..read more

Azuki Bar is a popular frozen popsicle in Japan made from sweet Azuki red bean paste. This cool treat has been enjoyed for its nutty flavor and grainy bean texture for decades. Azuki Bar contains nothing complicated or artificial, but it’s pleasantly sweet and full of flavor. It looks just like any popsicle with a stick. It’s a wonderful cold dessert during Japan’s brutally hot and humid summers, but it also can be eaten all year round. Azuki Bar was created by Imuraya, a long-established Japanese confectionery company, in the 1970s. Imuraya developed this product with the desire to offer the ..read more

Today’s miso soup features Shabu Shabu pork and leafy green lettuce. Shabu Shabu pork is paper-thin pork loin (or even pork belly), cooked by swishing it in the miso soup. Because the pork is very thin, it cooks through quickly. Rich umami flavor from the pork enriches the soup, giving it a wonderful taste. Lettuce adds a nice crunchy texture to the dish, so try not to cook it too long. Although this is another super easy miso soup, you still get a hearty and delicious result that pairs well with any meal or stands strong on its own with steamed rice. Hope you give it a try! Print Miso Soup ..read more

Chopped salad is a salad where ingredients like vegetables, fruits, meats, and nuts are chopped into cube shapes and tossed with dressing. It became hugely popular in the US, particularly major cities like New York and LA first, before its popularity spread to Japan, where chopped salad specialty stores have started opening as well today. Chopped salads have attracted attention for two main reasons. On one hand, their colorful array of ingredients caters to the recent health consciousness trend, and they are an easy-to-eat nutritious meal during busy lunch hours since everything is already cut ..read more

This simple Yakisoba noodle dish features a whole head of iceberg lettuce and chicken. Iceberg lettuce is most commonly eaten as salads, but its crisp texture also works well in stir-frying. One whole head of lettuce seems like a lot, but it shrinks to about half of the volume when it’s stir-fried. Crisp texture somehow remains, and the lettuce leaves also soaks up the flavors from the chicken and sauce quite well. Yakisoba is a popular Japanese stir-fried noodle dish, usually cooked with sliced pork, cabbage, and bean sprouts. While Worcestershire-based Yakisoba sauce seasoned version is most ..read more

Black Tea Pork is pork tenderloin cooked in black tea and then marinated in Japanese seasonings. One of the polyphenols in black tea, tannin, tenderizes the meat, eliminates its odor and greasiness, and results in a light and delicious dish. Cooking pork in black tea is a practical method and a great choice to make pork tasty. There are similar dishes to Black Tea Pork in Japan, such as Kakuni or salted pork in ramen, but the cooking time for Black Tea Pork is significantly shorter. While it still needs some time to marinate, there is nothing to do other than wait, making it incredibly easy to ..read more

Today’s miso soup features imitation crab. While imitation crab may not sound like a high-quality ingredient, it has a lot of umami flavor that enhances the base of the miso soup. Imitation crab, or Kanikama in Japanese, is made from fish paste (primarily pollock) that resembles crab meat. It contains no fat and is high in protein, making it an ideal ingredient for those on a diet. Additionally, it’s rich in calcium, which is an added bonus. Combined with cabbage and eggs, this makes for a delicious and filling miso soup suitable for any meal of the day. Hope you give it a try! Print Miso So ..read more

Sauce katsu-don is a local delicacy of Fukui Prefecture, consisting of pork loin or fillet coated in panko breadcrumbs, deep-fried to crispy perfection, and served over steamed rice. Sauce Katsudon differs from regular Katsudon, which is Tonkatsu (deep-fried pork) and eggs cooked in a sweet and salty broth placed over rice. In Sauce Katsudon, the hot cutlet is dipped in a savory sauce and then served over a bowl of rice. The Worcestershire-based sauce flavor pairs so well with the steamed rice that this dish has been beloved by people in Fukui for over 100 years. Today, the fame of Sauce Katsu ..read more