Tag Archives: food

So What Do Foreigners Find Expensive In Japan?

I have to highly recommend this post at Japan Today, not so much because of the story – which I find interesting in itself – but because there’s over 180 comments by people giving their own first-hand impressions. It’s fascinating, … Continue reading

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Nagaimo: A Staple of Japanese Cuisine

Nagaimo The nagaimo (長芋、ながいも), or Dioscorea opposita, is also known as the Chinese yam or Korean yam. The first kanji is “long”; the second is best read as “yam”. Yams long predated potatoes in Japanese cuisine.

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Kobe Beef

A Somewhat Modern Tradition Until the Meiji Restoration, consumption of beef had been banned in Japan for about a thousand years! This reflected not only Buddhist cultural prejudices, but to keep penalties severe in case anyone was tempted to slaughter … Continue reading

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Using Sushi to Teach Japanese

A Matter of Taste Last Tuesday, I was finally able to implement a plan for a Japanese lesson I’d had my heart set on: using sushi to teach Japanese vocabulary. It was a strong success. Somehow, people just remember things … Continue reading

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Japan Cooking: Creamed broad beans and chicken

So sue me – I’m actually using Twitter for once. Thanks to that, I saw this at Asahi.com (the Asahi Shimbun being Japan’s leading paper IIRC) presenting a Japanese recipe for the above dish… in English. Check it out here. … Continue reading

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Sushi, Diabetes and Frivolous Lawsuits

Overreach Here in the LA Times we have a story about a man with Diabetes who refused to eat the rice in an “all the sushi you can eat” special offer at a sushi restaurant, wanting only the fish. I … Continue reading

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See, The Sushi Is The Rice…

A lot of people think that “sushi” is raw fish. Sushi refers to the rice; the sliced raw fish is sashimi. Without that little fact, the content at this link (which is from the Associated Press) wouldn’t make much sense. … Continue reading

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Japanese Tea: Kombucha (Kelp Tea)

A Random, Confusing Issue So I saw someone randomly refer to “kabucha” in a list of food. Apparently this is a common misspelling of “kombucha,” but the problem is, the actual “kombucha” in the English language is not the Japanese … Continue reading

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Nigirizushi: Hand-Pressed Sushi

Pressed By The Chef’s Loving Hand So, to “nigiru” is indeed to grasp. Nigirizushi (sushi > zushi, at the end of a compound word; this makes it easier to say) is grasped by the chef and pressed together. It is … Continue reading

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The Culture of Food: O-Nigiri

Rice You Can Hold For once, eating with your hands (in Japan)  is OK. To nigiru is “To Grasp.” O-Nigiri (Japanese: おにぎり、お握り) is sushi that you grasp while eating it. Put simply, onigiri are rice balls with fillings of some … Continue reading

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