Fried rice is one of the delicious homemade dishes in Japan. You can use leftover meat, vegetables and rice to make it at home. In that way, you wouldn’t waste food and your refrigerator would be clean. I used leftover fried chicken which I bought from a local grocery

Gyoza is a very popular dish to eat in Japan. Especially, Japanese people eat Gyoza as a side dish with Ramen noodles at Ramen restaurants. Gyoza is originally from China. Apparently, the first person who ate Gyoza in Japan was Mitsukuni Tokugawa. Mitsukuni Tokugawa was a daimyo (powerful Japanese feudal

Hot pot is a very popular dish in Japan especially in Winter. Hot pot means “Nabe” in Japanese. Hot pot is the dish usually consisting of thin meat, vegetables, mushrooms and Tofu. Diners normally cook it at the table. Japanese people eat a variety of hot pots at home. You

Minced pork is popular in Japan. One of the reasons why Japanese people use the minced pork a lot is that it is cheaper than minced beef in Japan. Minced pork patty matches very well with cabbage and tomato sauce. It’s good to eat it when outside is cold

Chicken karaage is a very juicy and tasty dish in Japan. Karaage is actually one of the Japanese cooking techniques which is deep-fried in oil. You can karaage meat or fish as well. I will introduce the most common karaage dish, chicken karaage. What is the sauce for chicken Karaage?

This is a popular dish for children in particular in Japan. Omurice can be found at Western style restaurants in Japan as well. You can draw anything you want on top of the Omurice by demi glace sauce, or tomato ketchup like heart, smile face, words, anime characters and so

Curry flavored pork sauté is popular for children in Japan. This dish matches very well with steamed rice. This dish has little teriyaki and thick rich Japanese curry flavors. I really like the combination of these flavors. This dish is super easy and quick to make at home. You can

Edamame is a very popular side dish in Japan. “Edamame” literally means “stem beans” in Japanese. My family in Japan grows Edamame and they eat Edamame a lot at home especially in Summer. Edamame is served as a side dish at a lot of Japanese Izakaya (Japanese pub which serves

Tonpei yaki is one of the very popular teppan (Iron plate) yaki dishes, especially in Kansai area like Osaka, Japan. “Ton” means “pig”, “pei” means “flat” in Japanese. It is similar to Okonomiyaki, but ingredients and the taste are different. Tonpei yaki is originally from the restaurant which is named

Hayashi rice is a Western style dish (Yoshoku in Japanese) and very popular in Japan. This dish is originally from Hyogo prefecture, Japan. Hyogo prefecture is well known as Kobe beef as well. This dish contains beef and onions in a demi-glace sauce. The origin of the name of this

Tempura is one of the most popular deep-fried dishes in Japan. This dish is usually consisted of seafood, meat and vegetables, coated in tempura batter and deep-fried. It has a crispy texture and you can enjoy eating a lot of vegetables in a unique way. I will introduce meat, mushroom

Would you like to try a unique Japanese dish which looks like a Chinese dish and you can make at home? If so, Tenshin chahan is the one for you! This dish is named from Tianjin city in China (Tenshin city in Japanese). Apparently, this dish is originally from Japan.

Buta no shougayaki is one of the very popular set meals in Japan. Shougayaki means stir-fried or grilled with ginger and buta means pig in Japanese. Ginger and pork flavors go very well. It is normally served with shredded cabbage in Japan. This dish is very easy and pretty straightforward

This dish contains a lot of summer vegetables and fruits. I harvested a lot of cherry tomatoes from my garden this summer. This dish has a sweet tomato flavor. It is good to eat it in summer when eggplants and cherry tomatoes are very fresh. I noticed that shapes of

You can see a lot of Yakitori vendors at summer festivals in Japan. This dish is also very popular to eat with a glass of beer. If you are interested in Japanese beer, please see my friend's beer page on Facebook HERE. He suggested that if you have access to

I thought it’s a good idea to share the most useful Japanese ingredients with everyone who is interested in cooking Japanese food. I hope it will help you to decide which Japanese ingredients to buy first and try making a lot of Japanese food on my blog! Enjoy cooking

Typical Japanese family eats rice and drinks miso soup every day. Miso is fermented soybean paste. Miso soup is very easy to make at home with your choices of ingredients! I would like to introduce a very common and simple miso soup with Wakame (seaweed) and Tofu. Ingredients (2 bowls)

I found that the combination of Nori seaweed, bread and cream cheese is amazing. I used soy sauce and mustard to marinate tomatoes and cucumbers. I also used plastic wraps in order to shape and carry the sandwich easily. It is very convenient to bring to schools or workplaces for

It is very common for Japanese people to put tartar sauce not only on fish but also on chicken like this dish. Teriyaki is a Japanese cooking technique and uses soy sauce, mirin and sugar. Teri means shine, yaki means grilling, stir-frying or broiling in Japanese. When I was in

This dish is originally from China, but one of the famous Chinese chefs invented a Japanese version and introduced it to Japan. His name is Chen Kenmin and he is the father of Iron Chef Chinese Chen Kenichi. When I was in Japan, I watched Iron Chef TV series (料理の鉄人)