JFB: The Japanese Foods Blog

This blog is mainly about japanese foods (which I happen to love) and happened to love even more when I lived in tokyo for about 4 months. It also contains some non-japanese foods. We cooked some of the foods. Some of the foods we didn't cook. This blog also contains some stuff about travel as it pertains to foods. Some of the pictures were taken with a decent camera. Many of the pictures were taken with a crappy cellphone camera. You get the idea.

Our own cooking style is very ad hoc and we tend to stick to simple stuff. I've put pseduo-recipes where I think it's warranted. If you want more recipes you can contact me and I'll try to remember. Most of this stuff was oishii (deeelicious) unless otherwise noted.

your humble protagonists (courtesy DeAngela)
October 14
Hiro’s father, proprietor of the infamous Hot Dock custom motorcycle shop, has the boys from the shop over for dinner and roof-top xbox game sessions on occassion.  In addition to being the big boss he’s also a great cook. This is homemade edamame, which I’m sure many of you are familiar with.  It’s a Japanese staple snack and is always present at bars and restaurants and often at dinner tables in general, so I must include it at some point on this blog.  It’s also super easy to make.  Take fresh soybeans, boil them, remove from water and dose liberally with salt.  You eat them by sucking the salt off the outside and extracting the beans from the pods with your teeth.  Umai!

Hiro’s father, proprietor of the infamous Hot Dock custom motorcycle shop, has the boys from the shop over for dinner and roof-top xbox game sessions on occassion.  In addition to being the big boss he’s also a great cook.

This is homemade edamame, which I’m sure many of you are familiar with.  It’s a Japanese staple snack and is always present at bars and restaurants and often at dinner tables in general, so I must include it at some point on this blog.  It’s also super easy to make.  Take fresh soybeans, boil them, remove from water and dose liberally with salt.  You eat them by sucking the salt off the outside and extracting the beans from the pods with your teeth.  Umai!

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Here we have a blurry picture of a nice Nabe ready to serve from the hot plate.  It’s a chicken stock based soup with chicken, leeks, and mushrooms.  It also features kiritanpo- which is made from mashed rice formed around a chopstick (this is how Moco described it to me).  I’m sure I’m leaving something out, but if you see Nabe on a menu somewhere definitely get it!

Here we have a blurry picture of a nice Nabe ready to serve from the hot plate.  It’s a chicken stock based soup with chicken, leeks, and mushrooms.  It also features kiritanpo- which is made from mashed rice formed around a chopstick (this is how Moco described it to me).  I’m sure I’m leaving something out, but if you see Nabe on a menu somewhere definitely get it!

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October 13

Japanese-Style Wedding

So to a westerner’s eyes, Japanese people have a seemingly endless number of strange customs, and weddings cannot be excluded from this category.  According to Hiro, weddings are either traditional Shinto-style, or French-style.  My first reaction to the idea of French-style weddings in Japan was “but you’re Japanese!”. The French style weddings have the added oddity of being held in christian churches even though the vast majority of nihonjin, as Japanese people call themselves, are extremely secular, at the very same time that they cheerfully participate in certain ancient spiritualist rituals.

The food at these weddings follows the apparent world-wide custom of not being particularly good.

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Some beef and mustard concoction.  All of the food was “french” in probably the same way that there exists many “chinese” restaurants in the States.

Some beef and mustard concoction.  All of the food was “french” in probably the same way that there exists many “chinese” restaurants in the States.

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A rather blah chicken salad.

A rather blah chicken salad.

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Hiro liked the dessert the best.

Hiro liked the dessert the best.

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Yeah, they do that too…

Yeah, they do that too…

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October 8
So I’m not in kansas (japan) anymore kids.  San Francisco certainly has some good foods available, but I’m not eating much of it yet.  I did join some friends for a very nice morrocan meal at Tajine on Polk street.  I had the an awesome tajine ghanemy, badly pictured here.  It includes lamb, peas, artichoke hearts, and a little couscous on top.  Recommended!

So I’m not in kansas (japan) anymore kids.  San Francisco certainly has some good foods available, but I’m not eating much of it yet.  I did join some friends for a very nice morrocan meal at Tajine on Polk street.  I had the an awesome tajine ghanemy, badly pictured here.  It includes lamb, peas, artichoke hearts, and a little couscous on top.  Recommended!

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September 23
It is often the case that the food you can get at airports is about as a good as the food they serve you on the plane, but there are exceptions.  As we waited in Narita for the plane to take me back to San Francisco and a fate unknown, we had a very nice bon voyage meal.  Here we have katsudon, which is deep fried breaded pork cutlet with scrambled egg and onion over rice.  The sides are pickles and miso soup.  This is japanese comfort food and I’ve eaten it many times.

It is often the case that the food you can get at airports is about as a good as the food they serve you on the plane, but there are exceptions.  As we waited in Narita for the plane to take me back to San Francisco and a fate unknown, we had a very nice bon voyage meal.  Here we have katsudon, which is deep fried breaded pork cutlet with scrambled egg and onion over rice.  The sides are pickles and miso soup.  This is japanese comfort food and I’ve eaten it many times.

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