Hiyashi Chuka is a cold noodle dish most often served in the summer months in Japan. We use Chinese-style noodles as a base and mix in vegetables, fried eggs, and chicken or ham. When the summer season kicks off, many restaurants hang signs in their windows proclaiming “冷やし中華はじめました”, or “Now serving hiyashichuka!”

Here’s a great way to use your leftover corn soup. Sometimes I’ll even make an extra batch just so I can make this recipe. It’s quick, fun, and delicious. It’s even quicker and still pretty tasty using instant corn soup, which is also very common in Japan.

Spaghetti salad is very popular in Japan. You can find ready made spaghetti salad everywhere (super market, store, delis, convenience stores, etc). It is also my favorite—I like it it with lots of salad leaves for lunch! You can get creative and add your own vegetables as well.

Many Japanese will add udon noodles to the leftover soup from sukiyaki. This recipe is an evolution of that practice. Great tastes for the autumn season.

Tantanmen is a Chinese noodle dish, and very popular in Japan. There are many tantanmen restaurants in Japan and some ramen houses serve it as well, but tantanmen is much easier than making ramen soup—and tastes great! This contains some Chinese spices that are not very common but many Chinese supermarkets have them in the spices aisle.

Salmon Cream Pasta is a popular item in Japanese-Italian restaurants. Not technically a Japanese dish, but it is popular in Japanese homes, so I thought I’d share it with you. Also, this tastes great with a little ikura (salmon eggs) on top.

Tanuki Udon is Kyoto’s original Udon soup. This particular Udon is thick and contains ground ginger for a special taste. Most Kyoto Udon restaurants serve Tanuki Udon but it is harder to find in other cities. Ginger and green onion are good for a sore throat, so this is also a good recipe if you are feeling sick, and is great overall for a healthy diet.

Japanese: Guratan.
Gratan is originally comes from French cuisine and is very popular food in Japan. Most common gratan is baked macaroni, chicken and vegetables in a white sauce with cheese, but there are many kinds and sometimes we make original Japanese styles like tofu gratin!

We use ground daikon in many ways: with grilled fish, grilled egg, soba, nabe, etc. It makes for a light dish, also has lots of vitamin C, so it’s good for your health! This recipe contains a little bacon, and as you know, everything goes better with bacon, so enjoy!

Mentaiko is seasoned cod fish eggs. It may be hard to find where you live, but some Japanese supermarkets sell them frozen. You can also buy Mentaiko in the souvenir section at Japanese airports. We use it in rice bowls, omelets, and many other foods. It’s a little spicy, but tastes very good. It’s perfect for spaghetti.

This is the best way to eat soba in the sweltering summer heat. Grated radish makes you feel so refreshed when it is hot. I recommend making it for a light snack.

Soba is made from buckwheat flour. Its history dates back from over 1000 years ago. This is one of the famous Japanese foods. It has many vitamins, protein, and dietary fiber, so it’s very good for your health. There are two ways to eat soba: cold soba with sauce, or soba in hot soup. There are many hand made soba restaurants in Japan. We eat soba on New Years Eve (Toshikoshi Soba) in hopes of a long life, much like soba.

This is one of the oldest and most popular Japanese spaghetti recipes. Mixed with ketchup and fresh vegetables, it is a popular menu for coffee shops and we also often make it at home. It is so easy and also tastes great!

Many Japanese will make yakisoba during the summer months on a BBQ grill. Yakisoba can also be found in the “yatai” (booths where food is sold) at various summer festivals, and at teppankayi restaurants. This recipe is very light, but you can thicken it with various sauces (see notes below).