Yakitori

Yakitori is an essential Japanese culinary experience. Millions of bamboo chicken skewers are sold every day throughout Japan. A good yakitori shop will offer a fascinating selection of different cuts of chicken on skewers. There might be chicken legs, chicken meatballs, chicken livers, quails' eggs, chicken and leek kebabs to name but a few variations. Popular with beer, yakitori is marinated in teriyaki sauce, grilled over hot direct heat and basted continually during the process. Variations range from salty (shio) to sweetish (amai); however the basting sauce is typically made from soy sauce, sake, mirin (sweet rice wine),and sugar. Next time you're in Tokyo, try walking by a yakitori shop or stall without stopping. The mouth watering aroma of this Japanese specialty will entice you without fail.

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Teriyaki Sauce
½ cup soy sauce
¼ cup mirin (sweet rice wine)
½ cup sake
1 Tbsp. sugar
2-3 slices fresh ginger

Method
Mix the above ingredients in a small saucepan over high heat until boiling point. Reduce heat to med-low and simmer until volume is reduced to 1 cup - about 10-15 minutes. Remove ginger. Prepare chicken skewers and place on oiled grill. Baste chicken with sauce and turn when chicken is lightly browned. Repeat grilling, basting and turning until chicken is cooked - about 2 minutes. Serve immediately with lemon wedges. Teriyaki Sauce is a very versatile sauce which can be used to marinate and baste chicken, salmon, shellfish, and beef.

Japanese Ramen

Probably the most famous and beloved noodle soup in Japan is the ubiquitous ramen. Wonderfully satisfying and infinitely variable, a bowl of ramen is the perfect meal. Typical ingredients include fried pork, seaweed, bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, hard boiled egg, chili oil and Japanese 7 spice seasoning. The broth is usually made simmered from chicken or pork bones and is seasoned with miso, shio (salty), shoyu (soya sauce) or tonkatsu (pork bones). Remember to slurp the next time you're in a Japanese restaurant eating ramen, to show appreciation for the delicious broth. Also, the next time you're looking for a Japanese movie to watch, try "Tampopo", a timeless comedy about a single woman who owns a noodle restaurant and her truckdriving admirer who accompanies her relentless quest to create the perfect bowl of ramen.

Family style Ramen
Raw Chinese noodles or ramen noodles
1 clove finely chopped garlic
1 tsp finely chopped fresh ginger
1 tsp sesame oil
2 cup chicken soup stock
1 cup kombu dashi soup stock
1 tbsp sake
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
3 tbsp soy sauce
*For toppings:
Chopped negi
nori (dried seaweed)
wakame seaweed (soak in water before using)
Japanese 7 spice seasoning
Sliced cooked pork or chicken
Corn
Bean sprouts (steamed)

Method
Heat sesame oil in a deep pan. Saute chopped ginger and garlic in the pan. Lower heat. Add chicken soup stock and dashi and bring to the boil. Add sugar, salt, sake, and soy sauce to the broth. Strain the soup. Serve hot soup in individual bowls. In the meantime, boil water in a large pan. Add Chinese noodles to the boiling water and cook for a few minutes. Drain the noodles and serve in the hot soup. Garnish with an assortment of toppings like sliced pork or chicken, corn, bean sprouts, chopped negi, and nori seaweed. Sprinkle with Japanese 7 spice seasoning.

Okonomiyaki

Okonomiyaki is a panfried cross between a pizza and a pancake. It actually means 'grill as you like' with yaki meaning 'grilled', as in yakiniku (grilled meat) or yakisoba (fried noodles) or yakitori (grilled chicken). Osaka and Hiroshima are particularily famous for okonomiyaki which originated hundreds of years ago. There are numerous restaurants which specialize in this comfort food, but I love to watch street food vendors fry this up at a market or a festival. Somehow okonomiyaki tastes so much more delicious when eaten on the run. Typically the batter is made from flour, grated yam, dashi (broth), eggs, shredded cabbage, and an assortment of other ingredients like seafood, vegetables, beef, or pork. These items can vary according to what's in season, what you're craving, and/or what's in your refrigerator...it's one of those great family dishes which each member can create and fry individually on a portable grill pan at the kitchen table. After all the ingredients have been mixed into the batter and panfried, the okonomiyaki is then traditionally garnished with mayonnaise, brown special sauce, aonori (seaweed flakes), katsuboshi (fish flakes), and beni shoga (red pickled ginger). Healthy and flavourful!

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Okonomiyaki Recipe (serves one)

4 tbsp flour

1 tsp baking powder

salt

3 tbsp water or dashi (Japanese broth)

1 egg

3/4 cup cabbage, finely chopped

Method

Mix together the above ingredients. Add a selection of other items according to taste:

chopped green onion

shrimp

thinly sliced pork or beef

thinly sliced red or green pepper

Mix ingredients into batter. Heat griddle and lightly oil. Ladle batter onto griddle. When bubbles form, flip okonomiyaki over. Fry while pressing down gently. When cooked, garnish with special okonomiyaki sauce and japanese mayonnaise. Sprinkle with aonori, katsuboshi and pickled ginger.

NB Okonomiyaki sauce can be made with a mixture of 3 tbsp. ketchup, 1 tbsp. worcestershire sauce and 1 tsp. soy sauce.

Mitsumame

Mitsumame is a very popular traditional dessert in Japan. Basically it's fruit salad flavoured with syrup and cubes of jelly made from kanten, a type of gelatin derived from seaweed. (Most recently, kanten has been publlicized as a diet food because of its lack of calories.) Delicious and healthy, mitsumame is sometimes garnished with sweet cooked adzuki beans and then called anmitsu. Cream anmitsu and cream mitsumame means that it is served with vanilla ice cream. Sweet comfort food nicely balanced with sips of green tea! (Beautiful photo by Akira Yamada).
Simple Recipe:
Canned jelly cubes (Asian food store)
Canned fruit salad
Add finely chopped fruit (kiwi, mandarin orange, grapes or berries)
Garnish with vanilla ice cream

Soba with Mountain Vegetables

Traditional Japanese Breakfast

Many Westerners might find waking up to such a breakfast a little off putting. I, on the other hand, lover of all edible things Japanese, will savor every bite. Typically, there will be grilled fish accompanied by rice, miso soup, an assortment of pickles, crisp sheets of nori, pickled vegetables and either a Japanese style layered omelette or a coddled egg. It takes great dexterity to pick up a sheet of nori with chopsticks and then envelope a small mound of rice which is then dipped swiftly into soy sauce and popped into one's mouth. After eighteen years of marriage to my Japanese husband, I can proudly say that I'm very skilled with my chopsticks!