Breakfast
What is your go-to breakfast?
I’ve experimented with all sorts of different foods for breakfast, like cereal, toast with peanut butter and banana and honey, yogurt with frozen fruit, and also skipping breakfast all together for a while. But, I think out of all the breakfasts, I really enjoy the fish / miso soup / rice meal. It makes me feel ready and lasts me until lunch time. I’m sure that will change again in the future, but for now, it’s a good one 😄
Fish in Japan
Fish is such a huge part of Japanese food scenes.
You’ve probably heard or seen some of these:
- sushi
- grilled fish set meals
- sashimi
- and fish tempura.
White Fish
For the longest time I thought the kanji for white fish were read in their kun-yomi readings, but I was wrong this whole time!
Instead of しろざかな、it’s read as しらうお. You learn something new every day I guess.
Fish Paste
NativShark recently published a lesson on 練り物 in Phase 3 unit 33 ✨
(free 14 day trial at nativshark.com/lbjp)
My favorite 練り物 dish growing up was a ちくわ揚げ with minced meat and shiso stuffing.
Oden
おでん is a common Japanese dish seen usually in the winter months since it’s a hot broth soup dish. You might encounter them in 屋台 along the side of streets, or even at コンビニ where they will have a おでん station around where the registers are at.
Different types of fish
This site had some fun illustrations representing all the different fish you can find in these 練り物
Pools and Kamaboko
I grew up in Kumamoto, Japan. And in the summer during our summer vacations, I would go to the school pool almost every day to go swimming. And to enter the pool, you had to give them your 蒲鉾板 that has your name, grade, and phone number on it for emergency purposes. I thought I was remembering this wrong so I looked it up. But apparently it’s a thing that happens in Oita prefecture as well!
- We bought two かまぼこ. One for me, and one for my sister^^
おせち
Personal preferences plays a big role in whether or not you choose to partake in the tradition of eating 御節 on New Years. But these days, there are more and more “modern” 御節 being sold by restaurants as well. There are 焼肉おせち、お弁当屋さんのおせち、and so on that I’ve seen that don’t necessarily have the traditional dishes in them. Instead, they are filled with small neat dishes arranged beautifully in the form of an おせち to be enjoyed on New Year’s Day.
Naruto
Who here knew naruto is not only an anime character, but also a type of fish cake?? 🙋🏽♀️
Naruto is fish cake that gets role with some food coloring in the middle that makes a small spiral in the center of it. The most common place you may see these fish smaller, thinly sliced fish cakes is in a ramen bowl.
Famous Food in Kagoshima
One of Kagoshima’s famous food products is the さつま揚げ. These I think are my favorite 練り物 since they have happiness inside them. They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes with so many different stuffings.
Caleb’s Secret Fish Marinate
equal amounts of:
- 醤油 (soy sauce)
- みりん (rice vinegar)
- 酒 (cooking sake)
- ごま油 (sesame oil)
- ネギ (green onion)
And marinate for 10 minutes minimum.
Then bake it in the oven at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) or so. We do 3-4 min in our little fish grill, but the temperature and the length of cooking will depend on the cut of the fish, so experiment!