japanese food– tag –

The king of mashrooms in Japan is definitely pine mushrooms, Matsutake in Japanese. They are very expensive, like about 300 USD for one piece, but funnily enough, it's not popular at all outside Japan. Let's see the long history of eating mushrooms in Japan.

Japan and India seem to have their own unique box lunch cultures: Japanese bento and Indian dabba. Among other things, the tidy content arrangement of Japanese bento is one of a kind, while the lunch delivery system (dabbawala) in Mumbai is unequaled in the world.

Hokkaido is famous for delicious seafood like sushi and sashimi because it’s surrounded by the bountiful sea. My hometown Asahikawa is located in the very middle of Hokkaido, surrounded by mountains, far away from the sea, but you can have the best sushi because the town is the central distribution base of Hokkaido.

Have you ever eaten mochi? If yes and you’re still alive, you’re blessed. Do you know how many people have lost their lives by choking on mochi in Japan? It’s 300 averagely every year. We probably should prohibit or at least impose a heavy tax on mochi like narcotics and alcohol, but there has been no such momentum so far.

Why do bees and hornets build hexagons? If we try to fill a plane surface with a single kind of polygons, there are three options: equilateral triangles, squares, and regular hexagons. Bees and hornets go with regular hexagons because regular hexagons are best in space-efficiency and second best in strength. This is the core point of the theory. What do you think?

Do you think you can tell good rice from not-so-good one? If you think “Rice is just a foil to the main dish. There is not much of a difference,” that’s completely wrong. Today, I’m going to introduce a restaurant famous for good rice in Hokkaido.

If you wanna eat the best bread in Japan, you need to come to Hokkaido because it is the kingdom of the agricultural (wheat) and dairy (milk) industries in Japan. There are many well-known bakeries, and one of the major groups is bakeries opened by bakers breaking away from Maison Kayser.

Among river fish in Japan, the king is definitely salmon. You can see them in many rivers in Hokkaido this season. In autumn, salmon comes back from the sea and dies in its home rivers soon after spawning, which supports the ecosystem of Hokkaido's rich nature and economy.

Soba, buckwheat noodle, is very popular in Japan. The harvest season of buckwheat is autumn, the same as wheat, but funnily enough, only soba noodles are recognized as an autumn seasonal food in Japan. And also, many Japanese people see Soba noodles more elegant than Ramen and Udon noodles.

Genghis Khan is a barbecue of mutton, lamb, and vegetables. It's one of Hokkaido specialties. Mutton and lamb are not so generally eaten in Japan. There are many Japanese people who don’t like the smell. It’s very difficult to find a Genghis Khan restaurant outside Hokkaido.