Hot Dog Buns

Look closely. See the difference? Japanese hot dog buns are sliced open on top of the bun. Not on the side. I have been meaning to post this for years. Can't believe it's taken so long to get a photo. We don't eat hot dogs very often. They are rarely available at our store!

N.B. The red and blue lettering on the bag says "hot dog roll" in Japanese katakana, The script used for foreign words.

Kids Web Japan--katakana

Salad Cereal

Brown rice flakes with salad. Well, why not? Twenty years ago I was surprised to see corn flakes in ice cream sundaes and parfaits here. I think I remember seeing that in the United States last summer. Or was that frozen yogurt with corn flakes?

Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Fried Fish Patties on Sticks

This stall was at the ichou (gingko tree) festival.

This is called iwashi genkotsu. The fish is not a whole piece of fish. It is a patty made of ground fish, but the texture is not like ground beef. It's really tasty. Look, this stall keeper keeps his change in a dish.

A steamer.

More Stuff on Sticks

At this stall, there was chicken on sticks, beef on sticks, corn cobs on sticks and

rectangles of vegetable gelatin on sticks. Yum! They are soaking in hot water. The sticks are pointing upward. She's putting a sauce on one before serving it to a customer.

Eco Style

Instead of the usual styrofoam cups, Cup of Noodle has a refill pack. This cup is plastic and can be used time after time. The noodles are in a plastic package on the left.

We can go to their refill site and download and print some covers to change the look of the cup. (The middle of the cup twists out.) The website is in Japanese, but who knows, all this may be coming your way. If it hasn't already! The main Nissin Foods site can be read in English, but it doesn't mention Eco Style. I linked to their Food Safety section.

The illustrated instructions of how to make the noodles are on the bottom of the box. See the "Peace" sign at the end? What a nice touch! A nice gesture! We do that a lot here. Esp. when someone takes our picture.

Rice Burger

This is a sandwich served at Mos Burger. The "bun" is made of rice. Those are strips of burdock and carrot with sesame seeds. The dark green strip is seaweed. It's really good!

A Dozen Eggs

Usually cartons of 6 or 10 eggs are available. In celebration of Value Plus' 25th anniversary, the company is selling a carton of 12 eggs.

This company puts a sticker with the packaging date on each egg.

Grocery Delivery

There are companies that deliver groceries to homes. They prepare boxes of groceries for each order.

We order a week in advance. We look through a weekly catalog and choose the things we need for the following week's delivery.

We then mark a sheet like this one. We put the number of items we need in the little pink boxes. We hand it to the delivery man when he comes to deliver the groceries we ordered last week. If we're not going to be home, we can put the sheet in the blue plastic bag (pictured above) and hang it on the gate or door. It's very convenient especially to have heavy things like rice delivered.

Huki or Fuki

There are fields behind our house. The farmer who grows vegetables there told Baba she could have the huki that was growing along the fence. Little Brother went into the field and cut it for her. He handed it to her over the fence.

Huki is called fuki in English. There is no /f/ sound in Japanese (actually the sound is between an /h/ and an /f/). I think the plant is in the coltsfoot or Japanese Butterbur family.

Yamato Shijimi Clams (written in gold letters)

Today Big Sister did some errands for me. She went to the grocery store to buy food for dinner. She bought Shijimi clams. She had asked me a long time ago why we don't eat them often.

I was reminded again today. Shijimi clams need to be soaked in salt water for three hours before putting them in soup. Why? "Because they've been eating sand," said Big Sister. So we will soak them tomorrow morning and eat them for lunch.

They weren't singing or snoozing like in Naomi Kojima's Singing Shijimi Clams. But, I heard them squeal. They also rattled around a bit. Now I don't really want to eat them! I feel like the witch in the story!

Instant Miso Soup

Instant miso soup is sold at convenience stores. It is also sold like this. The longer package is the miso paste. The other packages are freeze dried things like tofu, spinach, leeks, etc. to add to the soup. Hot water is added. It's quick and easy. It's tasty, too. I bought this box for our emergency shed, but the expiration date is coming up. So, instead of wasting the soup, we're eating it now. We'll put the clams in this.


Kids Web Japan--miso soup

Onigiri Molds

These plastic molds are sometimes used to make onigiri. You fill the bottom part with rice. Then you put the top on and press down. You turn it over and push on the bottom. See the smaller triangular mold? It is upside down. You would push in the center to release the onigiri. It will (hopefully) slide out. The little yellow chick is also an onigiri mold. We used it for kindergarten. These molds come in other shapes, too.

Onigiri Option

Onigiri can also be made in plastic wrap. They will turn out round not triangular.

Cut small pieces of plastic wrap.
Place rice in the center of the wrap.
Wrap the rice pulling the ends of the plastic together.
Twist ends. A piece of ribbon is sometimes used to tie them together.
Cup the wrapped rice to make a ball.

These are easier to eat because the plastic is tied together. Onigiri are made this way here in Japan. I'll try to take a picture of this kind of onigiri.

Check the original posting. I added more info. about onigiri. You may have missed it.

Note: Whenever you clump rice together it is possible it could turn into a choking hazard. Onigiri are not a choking hazard. However, if you're doing it for the first time and you're crunching it all together you may get a gooey mess. You should be able to see each individual grain of rice. Watch out.

Leftover Rice

 

This is a ceramic container for leftover rice. Hot rice can be placed in the container. It can be put in the refrigerator. When needed, the container can be put in the microwave.

Homemade Onigiri

Little Brother went to a farewell party for his teacher today. His class went to a park. I made him onigiri or rice balls for his lunchbox. Big Sister made some onigiri for her lunch at home. Here is one she made. She sprinkled ume flavored sesame seeds in the rice before she molded this onigiri.

Short grain rice does better. Converted rice will not stick properly. Some recommend not rinsing the rice before making it. I rinse our rice but then I'm not too careful about measuring the correct amount of added water. In other words, a tiny bit more water than usual is added to the rice to cook it. The rice should be a little sticky but not mushy. Look at the following links for more information about

How to make onigiri:

Setsuko Watanabe's site

Bento Box

Store-Bought Onigiri

I bought this onigiri at a convenience store for lunch a long time ago. I took these pictures to show how it is wrapped. The seaweed is in a separate sheet of plastic so it won't get soggy. There are instructions on the outside. See the number 1? You pull down on that tab first.

Then you pull number two. Then number three. The plastic will slide out and away from the seaweed.

This is what an onigiri with shiny crispy seaweed looks like. Click to enlarge.

Here is another view. This onigiri has salmon in it.

Red Rice

Big Sister and I went out to buy sekihan, red rice, this afternoon. The white rice turns red after it is cooked with azuki beans. She took entrance exams for two high schools this month. She passed the first exam and found out today that she passed the other one. It is the school she really wants to attend, so she was happy. We decided to celebrate. Red rice is eaten for celebrations.

Baba was going to make it, but then she reserved some at this neighborhood shop. This shop also sells Japanese cakes called wagashi.

The shopkeeper was upstairs eating his dinner when we walked in. A bell sounded as we opened the door. How did we know he was eating dinner? It was dinner time, and he came downstairs chewing and wiping his mouth!

He weighed the red rice and then put it in a plastic container. He wrapped it in a narrow sheet of paper.

He also gave us a small bag of black goma, sesame seeds. They are sprinkled on top of the rice.

Winter Fast Food

During the winter, some convenience stores have a pot of hot oden on or near the counter. Customers can spoon out what they want (konnayaku, fish cakes, daikon, tofu, kelp etc.) along with the broth. They pay for it at the register. Oden is made at home, too.

Dried Plum

This is a package of dried plums, umeboshi. Dried plums are very sour. If there is a section of white rice in an obento, a dried plum is usually put on top of and in the center of the rice. Papa said that was the heart of the obentou.

Sometimes, dried ume or ume paste is put inside onigiri, rice balls.

Mekabu and Natto

I was walking through Shinjuku station and saw this in a shop. From a distance, it looked like green tea. It's mekabu, a part of wakame (kelp). The sign suggests two ways of eating it:

1) soak it in water for 10 minutes and serve with vinegar, grated daikon or natto.

2) use it as it is in miso soup, udon, soba, or clear broth.

Bigger pieces of mekabu. Mekabu is supposed to be good for the immune system.

This is natto. It's fermented soybeans. It is really sticky and stinky. It's good for your health, though. Papa stirs in a raw egg before he eats it.