“Tako” means octopus in Japanese. I know many of you can’t believe we eat octopus but it’s incredibly popular in Japan. It’s fairly similar in taste to squid, so if you like calamari, you are ready to try tako!

Kinki is “rockfish” in English and nitsuke means boiled fish (or vegetables) in soy sauce. Winter is the best season for rockfish, and nitsuke is the most popular way to eat it. This picture is from yesterday’s dinner. The kinki is on the right side of the bento box.

This is a nitsuke recipe using a white fish fillet. Nitsuke means boiled fish (or vegetables) in soy sauce. You can use any white fish (I bought mine at Costco) to make this recipe. I recommend that you serve it with steamed rice.

Tenshinhan is Chinese style Japanese food. You can find it in most of the Chinese restaurants in Japan, but you can not find it in China. It’s essentially a fried egg with kanikama (imitation crab) covered with a thick, sweet sauce. It’s great—one of the more unique Japanese foods you might find on this site.

The Japanese word for sushi rolls is makizushi. And tuna rolls are called tekkamaki (tekka roughly translates to “red hot iron”, because of the tuna’s resemblance to one). Cucumber rolls are called kappamaki (kappa is a mythological Japanese creature whose favorite food is cucumber). These are the most common sushi rolls in Japan.

Saba Miso is a very common Japanese home cooking meal. People typically eat Saba Miso with steamed rice. This is one of my family’s favorite meals and I have very good memories of my grandmother making it for me and my father when I was a child.

Satsuma age is a fried fish cake from Kagoshima, Japan. Please try it if you’re ever here! There are many kinds of satsuma age available, so if you have a chance, try a few and pick your favorite!. My grandfather is from Kyuushu and he recently brought us a fresh batch. It was delicious!

This is another mentaiko recipe! Mentaiko is seasoned cod fish eggs. It may be hard to find where you live, but some Japanese supermarkets sell them frozen. Many izakaya (Japanese drinking establishments) serve this type of potato salad. It’s easy and delicious!

Tempura is a very popular Japanese dish all over the world. Basically it is battered and fried seafood and vegetables. We have been eating tempura over 300 years and there are many traditional, high quality tempura restaurants in Japan. This is simple dish but it takes a bit of work, and can be dangerous, so if you are not used to cooking with oil, please be careful!

Have you had Anko Nabe? The fish in this recipe looks very strange, but it contains a lot of collagen, which is great for your skin. I had it last night and my skin looks better today! The goosefish’s meat is thick and tastes very mild. This dish is great for your health, and perfect if you are dieting!

Kyoto is finally warming up! It feels like Spring is right around the corner. Soon the sakura (cherry blossoms) will be blooming all over Japan! I’ll be sure to post some pictures here when they do. This recipe is a Japanese rice soup made with steamed rice, and is great for a healthy diet! I posted a similar recipe a while back, Tamago Zōsui, but today I used fresh oysters! So good!

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.

Kaki is the Japanese word for oyster. It is also called “umi no miruku (milk from the ocean)”, named as such because of the high nutritional value of oysters. They are in season from fall to winter, so let’s get fresh oysters and make this recipe!

Japanese: Ebi fry.
Ebi fry is extremely popular at home and in restaurants in Japan. It also makes for a good bento (lunch box) to take to work or school. Ebi fry falls under the category of “youshoku” (pronounced yo-shoh-koo), which is the Japanese word for western style food. Oddly enough, most youshoku recipes hardly resemble anything you can find on the menu in western countries. This is because the dishes were introduced to Japan so long ago that over the years they’ve evolved to the local tastes and become almost uniquely Japanese. Still, however, they retain the western moniker. A couple of other youshoku I’ve posted here are gyudon (beef bowl) and katsu sando (pork cutlet sandwich). Check those out too when you have a chance!

Japanese: Toriniku to Ebi no Ketchup Itame. “Toriniku” is Japanese for chicken and “ebi” is shrimp. “Itame” means stir fry. This dish is a little sweet and a little sour. Kids like it, and you can even cook it with pineapple if you want it to be a little sweeter. I prefer savory tastes, as most Japanese do, so I’ve omitted the pineapple here.

Ebi Mayo is a fantastic appetizer that is extremely easy to make, delicious, but strangely, very hard to find in American cities I’ve visited. Considering that, this is a great dish to show off to friends who may have never heard of it before. Please let me know if you have seen or eaten it in your city!

Nimono is food that is boiled and seasoned. Many meals cooked at home in Japan are prepared in this fashion. Saba is the name for mackerel. There are many way to eat mackerel but this is my favorite because my grandmother used to make me when I was child.

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.

Ebichiri is short for “ebi no chili sauce itame” which means grilled shrimp with chili sauce. But ironically we don’t use chili sauce for this food. Please let me know if you know why! This food comes from China but we modify it for the Japanese pallete. There are many Chinese restaurants in Japan but I don’t think you can find Ebichiri in China!

“Itawasa” is the name for kamaboko with wasabi and soy sauce. Kamaboko is probably one of the least accessible Japanese foods, but if you give it a chance, you’ll find that it is healthy, delicious, and attractive.

Kamaboko is made with “surimi”, a mixture of various whitefish formed into a distinctive loaves (often pink and white) and steamed until firm. You’ll find kamaboko in many soups (such as ramen) and noodle dishes. Kamaboko is sold in grocery stores and even convenience stores in Japan, and in America it can be found at Asian groceries. If you don’t have an Asian grocery nearby, I hope you’ll try it if you have the chance to visit Japan!

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).