July 2010Archive

The side dish of today's main is Yakisoba.

I cook nearly every day bento.
And, I eat the bento in my company at noon.
Bento for lunch cooked by oneself is low cost and low calorie.
In addition, it is very good for "my health and food cost".

Well, I explain the content of today's bento to you.
Can you see the number on the bento's photograph?

 

A, B, and C are おにぎり[Onigiri].

Tawara: the bag of straw to wrap farm products

These おにぎり(Onigiri) is very small.
And, this Onigiri is shape that is called "Tawara type", it is called the "俵おにぎり(Tawara-Onigiri)".

*Tawara;
Tawara is a bag of the straw knit for the column type.
Tawaraha is used to wrap farm products chiefly, and indicates the straw rice bag.

Tawara: たわら(tawara in hiragana)/俵(tawara in kanji)

I cooked three kinds of Tawara-Onigiri today.

A is Twara-Onigiri of the black sesame and the salt.

B is Tawara-Onigiri of Ume-Katsuo.

C is Tawara-Onigiri of Nori and the salt.
The triangle and the circle of the shape of Nori-Onigiri are general.

D is Ohitashi of the chrysanthemum.

*Ohitashi;
おひたし(ohitashi in hiragana)/御浸し(ohitashi in kanji), boiled vegetables seasoned with blended soy sauce.

Medamayaki

E is Tsukemono of Hakusai.

*"Hakusai" is a Chinese cabbage.
In general, because Tsukemono has a strong smell, "Tsukemono with a faint smell" is suitable for Bento.
Because Takuwan is Tsukemono with a very strong smell, it is unsuitable to Bento.

When the temperature and the room temperature are high, the stink of Takuwan becomes strong further.
Therefore, if you brought Takuwan with Bento to your office, the stink of Takuwan might be filled in the room.

 

F is a fried egg.

The fried egg is "目玉焼き(Medama-yaki)" in Japanese.
"目玉(medama)" is meaning "Eyeball".
"焼き(yaki)" is meaning "frying with pan".

 

G is Benishouga.

Benishouga is used as the most general Yakisoba's garnishes in Japan.
It is especially garnishes to "焼きそば(Yakisoba)" and "牛丼(gyuudon)".

*Benishouga; べにしょうが(benishouga in hiragana)/紅生姜(benishouga in kanji)

Yakisoba source

 

H is yakisoba.

Yakisoba, literally "fried noodles", is a dish often sold at festivals in Japan, but originates in China .
The dish was derived by the Chinese from the traditional chow mein.
And, the Yakisoa's noodle has been gradually changed by a Japanese culture.
Even though soba ( noodle s made from buckwheat ) is part of the word, yakisoba noodles are not made from buckwheat, but are similar to ramen noodles and made from wheat flour .

Yakisoba is usually seasoned with the Worcester sauce (source for Yakisoba).

Japanese Yakisoba is prepared by stir-frying ramen-style noodles with bite-sized pork , vegetables (usually cabbage , onions or carrots) and flavoured with yakisoba sauce, salt and pepper. It is served with a multitude of garnishes, such as aonori (seaweed powder), benishoga (shredded pickled ginger), katsuobushi (fish flakes), and Japanese mayonnaise.

Medamayaki

Yakisoba is loved as the main dish or a side dish by Japanese people.

By the way, Yakisoba of today's Bento is Yakisoba with the easiest recipe in Japan.
It is a chow mein set of the manufacturer named "Maru-chan" of Japan.

There is steaming noodle and powdery Yakisoba sauce in this bag.

The steaming noodle is stir-fried with meat and the vegetable, a powdery source is sprinkled at the end, and this Yakisoba is stir-fried further.

The recipe is only that.
It is very inexpensive.

It is about two dollars per three food.

Moreover, it is sometimes sold cheap for about one dollar in the supermarket.
Moreover, it is very delicious.

And, this is Yakisoba that sells most in Japan.

 

 

Hararie

 

 

What is ONIGIRI?

おにぎり(ONIGIRI) is a Japanese food made from white rice formed into triangular or oval shapes and often wrapped in のり/海苔(NORI).

Onigiri is not a form of sushi, despite a common misconception.

Traditionally, an ONIGIRI is filled with pickled 梅干し(UMEBOSHO), salted salmon, かつおぶし/かつお節/鰹節(KATSUO-BUSHI), こんぶ/昆布(KONBU), たらこ(TARAKO), or any other salty or sour ingredient as a natural preservative.

Katsuobushi [鰹節]	Konbu [昆布]	Tarako [たらこ]

 

In Japan, KATSUO-BUSHI because of the filling to ONIGIRI is called "おかか(OKAKA)".

Because of the popularity of ONIGIRI in Japan, most convenience stores there stock ONIGIRI with various fillings and flavors.

 

Onigiri is made with plain rice (perhaps lightly salted), while sushi is rice with vinegar, sugar and salt.

Onigiri makes rice portable and easy to eat as well as preserving it, while sushi originated as a way of preserving fish.

Moreover, Onigiri is put in Bento.

 

From the Kamakura period to the early Edo period, ONIGIRI was used as a quick meal.
This made sense as cooks simply had to think about making enough ONIGIRI and did't have to concern themselves with serving.

These ONIGIRI were simply balls of rice flavored with salt.

のり/海苔(NORI) didn't become widely available until the Genroku era in the mid-Edo period, when the farming of NORI and fashioning it into sheets became widespread.

It was believed that ONIGIRI could not be mass produced as the hand-rolling technique was considered too difficult for a machine to replicate.

 

In the 1980s, however, a machine that made triangular ONIGIRI was devised.

This was initially met with skepticism because, rather than having the filling traditionally rolled inside, the flavoring was simply put into a hole in the ONIGIRI, and the hole was hidden by NORI.

Since the ONIGIRI made by this machine came with NORI already applied to the rice ball, over time the NORI became unpleasantly moist and sticky, clinging to the rice.

A packaging improvement allowed the NORI to be stored separately from the rice.

Before eating, the dinner could open the packet of NORI and wrap the onigiri.

The limitation of the machines that required using a hole for filling the ONIGIRI instead of rolling the filling with the rice actually made new flavors of ONIGIRI easier to produce as this cooking process did not require changes from ingredient to ingredient.

 

This is a video of "Onigiri manufacturing factory".

 

Japanese food is almost always eaten with chopsticks, and it is considers poor manners to eat with one's hands.

But, ONIGIRI is exceptional in that it is okay to eat it with your hands.
Another example of handmade Japanese food is SUSHI.

 

 

ONIGIRI's ingredients

The ingredients to ONIGIRI is called GU[具] in Japan.

Or, there is ONIGIRI not stuffed with anything either.

It is called "塩むすび(SHIO-MUSUBI)" etc.
SHIO-MUSUBI is seasoned only with the salt.

Or, there is SHIO-MUSUBI that the black sesame is sprinkled to the surface, too.

 

ONIGIRI's ingredients of various Japan

Various ingredients is used for Japanese Onigiri.

They are the tuna mayonnaises, lobster's tempuras, Tonkatsu, and are the seasoned cod roes, the chicken minced meats, the salmons, Konbu, Umeboshi, Tsukemono, the spring onion misoes, and are natto, and roast meats, etc.

The salmons Onigiri	Tuna and mayonnaise Onigiri

 

Lobster's tempura Onigiri	Okaka Onigiri

 

Tarako Onigiri	Tonkatsu Onigiri

 

Takana(TSUKEMONO) Onigiri	Natto Onigiri

 

Moreover, SHIOKARA is used for ONIGIRI.

 

The Onigiri recipe is next time.

Hararie