Saturday 5 November 2016

Foods of Japan

November 4, 2016

Japanese people love food.  Television here is full of people trying local specialities or cooking local foods.  Each area has a food that they are famous for and packages of local foods make great souvenirs for travellers.  Unfortunately, they may not be so easy to take back if you are from another country due to custom regulations or difficulty of transport.

To showcase foods of the world, this weekend's topic on the Blog Link Up Party I will show you a few of the Gotochi cards that deal with Japanese food.  There are many, but these are some of my favourites!

My prefecture, Yamagata-ken has two cards that deal with food.  The first is Sakuranbo or cherries.

Yamagata is famous for cherries.
The cherries in the store tend to be more green
than the ones I am used to getting in Canada.  They are good though!

This local food is Tama-kon or more properly, tamakonnyaku.   These are often seen at festivals or at roadside stops.  Tama means ball or egg, and konnyaku is made from konjac or the devil's tongue plant. You may know "shirataki noodles" which are made from the same plant.
Tama-kon are boiled in a soup made out of soy sauce and sugar, possibly with squid in there too!

The yellow on the balls is hot mustard.  The whole experience is a bit like eating a hot chewy eraser!



This is Okonomiyaki.  Okonomiyaki is a bit like a stuffed pancake.  There are many types, I like ones with kimchi or meat or even cheese and curry in them. This example below is Hiroshima-style.  Hiroshima style includes noodles, and the foods are layered rather than mixed as in versions in other areas.   We have a local shop that makes this food and I really like it.



What would an entry about Food in Japan be without Sushi?  I just received this card in a swap. This is Edo-Style Sushi. I really like sushi, but I don't usually eat this much at once!


Thank you for visiting my entry into the Foods of the World Link-up Party.  I hope you have enjoyed this look at some Japanese foods.  Please visit the other party members to see what cards they feature. 





10 comments:

Mail Adventures said...

Except for cherries, all this food is unknown to me. Japan must be a very interesting country concerning food (and a lot of other aspects, of course!).

Helen said...

It is a very interesting country for food, but I didn't post some of the food that I don't like! I decided to only post the stuff I like. It is easier to talk about that way.

If you are a vegetarian or have a restricted diet it can be very difficult to eat in Japan.

Mail Adventures said...

Of course is better to post things we love, I do the same!
In Morocco is very difficult too if you have diet restrictions. Luckily, I don't have any :)

Helen said...

I'd love to try Morrocan food some time. There aren't any restaurants nearby that serve it though. :-(

Maria said...

The Tokyo card is similar to a sushi plate I often share with my partner :) That quantity isn't enough for both of us. I didn't know though about sushi styles. Thanks for sharing about the Edo-style and I'm sure will research about the rest. Until next weekend :)

Helen said...

I like sushi too, but tend to go to cheaper places that don't serve it like this! Glad you like it!

Heleen said...

Beautiful cards, I like the Gotochi style!

Curious to know how Okonomiyaki will taste, it looks good.
The tamakonnyaku looks likte Indonesian sateh (which I like very much), but from your description I learn it is totally different and I'm not sure if I dare to eat it :-)

Sushi I've eaten in the past year for the very first time and I like some types of them. Sushi are becoming more and more popular in the Netherlands, or at least in my city, where there is a rather large Japanese community.

Thank you for sharing!

Helen said...

Okonomiyaki means "how you like it" or something like that, so you can choose. There are restaurants where they give you all the ingredients and you make your own...that's rather fun. The local one makes them for you however. The base is eggy, and it depends on the fillings what it tastes like. There's some flour in it usually and also a bit of ginger...maybe pork or shrimp, green onion....I enjoy it a lot.

Tamakon doesn't have much of a taste by itself, that's why it needs to be cooked in the soup and covered in mustard. It doesn't have meat like satay (if that's what you meant) and it is very chewy...as I said before, a bit like chewing erasers! It is a food that is very high in fiber and low in calories, which is why many people like it.

I learned the names for sushi in Japanese but then when I went to a place with a bilingual menu and read the English I had no idea what I was ordering! I have to use the Japanese menu to order!

Thanks for commenting!

John's Island said...

Hi Helen, Wow, you have some great cards here for the link up. Hard to pick a favorite here, they are all so good, but I love the cherries. You mentioned cherries from Canada and I'll bet they are from the Pacific Coast area. You will know that Washington State is big on cherries. I learned some interesting things here about international food from your cards. Thanks for sharing!

Helen said...

Indeed, the cherries that I had in Canada are from British Columbia.

Glad that you liked the cards!