I think I want to switch my diet to Japanese food. Where should I start? Any advice and what I need? I have a Japanese market 30 minutes away, but it might be somewhat expensive? I'm not sure. I'm suppose I'm average, 180 pounds at 6'1", but I think I can lose some weight changing what I eat. Right now I live with my dad who, figures, doesn't really cook. That being said I don't really eat anything homemade, and if I want to start cooking things myself I'll have to buy new supplies: a rice cooker, some misc. kitchenware, and stock up on lots of food that I don't own.

I suppose some good recipes to try are お好み焼き and すき焼き. I'd like to hear any tips and advice that you guys can provide. Would it still be realistic to just try to make my entire diet Japanese? Just to throw this out there: I don't cook so much. Maybe at my mom's house I would sometimes help, but that's about it. Yesterday I had some McDonald's and just decided I needed to stop eating fast-food altogether, but that going for a Japanese diet might be practical in the sense that I could maybe even use Japanese recipes once I become competent. I think it'd be interesting to make an お弁当 for lunches when I go back to school.

Just an idea I'm considering. Maybe it's stupid, but I might as well ask. I did do a search and nothing popped up in regards to Japanese food (on the forums).

I think this is a fantastic idea. I'm on my phone now and about to start work, but I will respond longer later. I've got several Japanese cookbooks and spent some time doing what you plan to. Also I noticed that living in japan and being forced to eat Japanese food for two years drastically affected my size and health. Tryin to keep up the good habits now that I am back in the us.

Edit: Everybody said everything I was going to already so good luck! I second "the art of Japanese cooking" I have it and it's great. But you also need books that show much simpler ways to make food, because with this guys way it's a full time job just to make lunch.

An easy way to start is to just eat Japanese bento boxes for lunch.
They are cheap (under $10) and are usually very well-balanced in terms
of nutrition.

As for cooking Japanese, the most famous book on Japanese cooking is
called:

Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art by Shizuo Tsuji

It's the best book on Japanese cooking ever made. The Japanese Cooking Bible.
I have the book and it's a joy to read. It not only teaches you the
traditional Japanese cooking techniques, but also the philosophy behind
Japanese food.

It's funny that you mention Japanese cooking.

I was lucky enough to find Japanese cooking classes in my area
that are meant for native Japanese.

The class consists of older Japanese housewives, maybe a study abroad Japanese student here and there.....and me..... No one speaks any English. Not even the cooking instructors.... Try running a google search for 料理教室　(cooking class) and see if there are any classes in your area.

After class, the teachers serve our meals, and we sit around and talk in Japanese.
Really awesome experience if you're lucky enough to find something similar in your area. The instructors pass out a copy of the recipes to each person. So now I'm SRSing all the recipes (maybe I'll make an Anki shared deck if people are interested). There are so many technical cooking words/phrases that are used very often.

Even if your Japanese sucks, just go there anyway. Turns out a lot of the people
in my class have little to no contact with English speakers. So they are very happy
to get a chance to practice English.

Also, if you go to freshverse.com and watch the "NHK General" channel under the "Analog" channels, you can catch "NHK Kyou no Ryouri", which is Monday-Thursday 11AM-11:30AM (Japan Time) and 9PM-9:30PM (Japan Time). They even have a Japan Time clock right under the video stream. There is even a magazine for the show with all the recipes.

The last 5 minutes of each show is called "NHK Kyou no Ryouri Beginners" and it's aimed at beginners.

I also bought a lot of Japanese cooking books (in Japanese). When I get home, I'll write them down and post it here.

Lastly, you can try my favorite Japanese cooking vlog on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/cookingwithdog

If you're going to be making a lot of Japanese food, I'd definitely recommend a rice cooker: http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=4035

A wok is also nice to have.

I started off with simple recipes from Just Hungry/Just Bento: http://www.justhungry.com - Now I'm a certified fugu chef! j/k

There's also that 'cooking with dog' YouTube channel or whatever, quite well done. You could also try SRSing Japanese food names if you have a core group you intend to use awhile, then use Japanese-only recipes...

People's favourite foods and sites and suchlike: http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=4780

For the philosophy on Japanese cooking, see http://kimonobox.com/post/en/517/ramen-girl/

I would suggest onigiri as a great place to start. Easier and less intimidating than some of the stuff that goes in a bento, in my opinion. Easy to pack for lunch, too. The only trick is to make sure you can get the rice to stick together - not overfilling the center (konbu, fish, mushroom, whatever!) helps. This may not be the traditional way, but I just put a little pile of rice in the middle of a large square of saran wrap, stuff some 'stuff' in the middle, wrap the saran wrap around, and squish! Bend each hand at the first knuckle, fingers straight, hold your hands so that they kinda fit into each other, and press firmly. Unwrap, fold a little bit of seaweed around the outside and you're done. (My Japanese grocery has 'rough cut' seaweed sheets that are much cheaper than the standard, perfect ones.

I have a little book (in Japanese) on fancy onigiri - if you're interested let me know and I'll look up the title.

Also, see if you can find someone to show you how to wash your rice. That sticky brown stuff on the bottom of your rice cooker doesn't have to be there! If you wash your rice properly it will be more flavorful and have great texture. Just be aware that you might wash away the 'enriched' part - artificially added vitamins and minerals - so be sure to eat your vegetables.

For super easy onigiri, I've used these to great effect:

http://justbento.com/handbook/bento-basi...lastic-bag
http://www.justhungry.com/2007/01/onigir..._an_e.html

Yeah I'll look into all this stuff, thanks for the help. I think it might be difficult for me, because I've never really eaten fish to be honest. I'll have to give it a go, and I think I'm willing to try new foods (for the most part). This might have to be pushed back a week while I figure out what I'm going to do for student loans, but I should start soon. I'll try some onigiri, and I definitely want to make some sukiyaki and okonomiyaki. One of my Japanese pen pals also likes to cook and has a Japanese website she uses, so maybe I'll grab that and post it here.

I've got Just Bento and Just Hungry bookmarked, and I subscribed to that channel on YouTube. I think the hardest part will be getting supplies the first few times since I have no items from any of those recipes, I'm guessing. I'm not quite sure how to go shopping and get enough supplies for more than one day. I've never really done that kind of shopping. :/

I second http://www.youtube.com/user/cookingwithdog

Awesome video blog. I made the オムライス for my JP wife when she was sick.

Super easy, very well laid out instructions. Better instructions than any celebrity chef or TV cooking show.

Everyone has a Japanese wife. I need to get me one of those.

TheVinster Wrote:I think I want to switch my diet to Japanese food. Where should I start?

Easily done. Get yourself a flat of eggs, industrial size tubs of ketchup and mayo, and some rice. Ketchup is applied in heart or happy face shapes. Mayo is put under, in, and over food. Take any dish you like now, add eggs, mayo and ketchup and it's japanese. it's as simple as that.

TheVinster Wrote:Everyone has a Japanese wife. I need to get me one of those.

A wife is OK. But a few Japanese girls on the side is even better

chamcham Wrote:But a few Japanese girls on the side is even better

I like a few Japanese girls on top.



Ok, no, seriously

I think before you go crazy with the Japanese food, you should at least make sure you like it first. It's just like any other cuisine, you could find food you really like and food you don't like. For one, I found out I don't like mentaiko the other week... or at least, by itself with rice. Onigiri is easy to make, but I'm always hungry after I eat it. So cook what you like, instead of looking for recipes that are just Japanese. =)

The other thing is that cooking something can be really time consuming, depending on how many prepackaged ingredients you want to use. For example, you want to make お好み焼き。You can make your own 出汁、grate your own 山芋、or you can buy the prepackaged flour by オタフク that has extracts of those ingredients in there. Or you can just use regular flour and water. And then you can throw all sorts of ingredients in there, from squid to shrimp to beef to eggplant. The other week, I prepared whole squid by hand and it was annoying and time consuming beyond belief. -_-;

Also, as much as I've made it, it still doesn't taste as good as it does at the DIY restaurant near me... so it's definitely a lot of work before you can actually do a Japanese diet. And more often than not, I find myself with lots of leftover ingredients for random things too, so it also takes a good mind to budget all of it so that nothing spoils.

Oyakodon. So easy, so fast, so tasty. If you aren't used to cooking it wouldn't be a bad place to start. I wouldn't start with something like okonomiyaki ... it can go wrong pretty easily.

親子丼 - very simple version, but tasty and fast.

Personal Trainer - Cooking has a nice Teriyaki chicken recipe, though extracting ginger juice is annoying.

Cooking for yourself using whole foods can do amazing things for your health. Good luck!

If you work in NYC, I would suggest Fuji Catering.

They are a catering company that typically deliver
to mostly Japanese clientele working in NYC.

They have 4 different bentos everyday.
You can choose your bentos for the week.

Most bentos are $6.50.

Main website:
http://www.fuji-catering.com/

Directl link to menu:
http://www.fuji-catering.com/menu/menu_j.htm

How to order:
http://www.fuji-catering.com/oder/oder_e.html

I think it would be a great introduction to Japanese
food since the bentos change every week.

kainzero Wrote:

chamcham Wrote:But a few Japanese girls on the side is even better

I like a few Japanese girls on top.

I actually laughed out loud. Good job.

Anyway, I'm in Illinois. I tried applying at the Japanese market I mentioned, but it's been almost 2 weeks. I don't think they'll call me, and that would've been the best since they have a small marketplace, a bakery, restaurants, etc. I will definitely start with something easy, Sukiyaki seems particularly simple and delicious. Onigiri also seems like a good place to start. Maybe then I'll go to some simple noodles and miso soup and figure out some sort of meat for that. I have to find a job before all of this so that I can afford it. :o

I'd rather a few Japanese girls on the bottom. Every one I've been with isn't any good on top...

A good place to start cooking Japanese food is... eating Japanese food. Find out what everyday kind of meals are in Japan. Hint: it isn't sukiyaki and okonomiyaki. Those are somewhat social meals cooked for family/friends.

Once you've got that figured out, just look at some recipes online. Japanese food is VERY easy to cook technique-wise, you just have to learn how to do aji-tsuke with stuff you might not be used to (sake, mirin, shoyu, dashi).

Examples of stuff I've cooked recently (not all is strictly Japanese, but it is the Japanese version of another Eastern Asian dish):
Kimchi chahan
nikujaga
yakisoba
omuraisu
karaagedon
mabodofu
gyuudon
subuta
mentaiko spaghetti

Sushi can be pretty easy to make, if you can make rice, I think you just put a couple teaspoons of sushi vinegar on it, let it cool, then you can slice some avacados and buy premade crab-sticks. The seaweed wrap can be bought at the Japanese grocery store.

Okonomiyaki is a little more involved, you need some sort of okonomiyaki batter, but the actual grilling part is easy. I just put some squid slices or pork, the extras (onions, cheese, corn, mochi, kimchi), and mix with the batter and some cabbage. Having the okonomiyaki sauce and the sprinkles of seaweed on top really adds to it.

@daniel: That is American food imitating Japanese food. You might as well just eat a hamburger. Also, real sushi rice is a mixture of several ingredients including vinegar (but not the same vinegar that you buy at a normal store in the west), but also a number of other ingredients. You also use significantly more than a few drops of it.

Sure you can use normal vegetable vinegar instead of 純米酢, you can leave out all the other すし酢 ingredients, you can use the wrong amount of すし酢, you can use the wrong type of rice, you can use compressed filler crap(b) meat, you can use avocado, etc.. ..but you're no longer eating Japanese food. California rolls may taste good, but they (at most places I've tried them) taste nothing like sushi.

It would be like making a pizza but using sliced bread instead of dough, processed cheese slices instead of mozza, and ketchup instead of tomato paste.

-former lead chef of a popular JP restaurant

-edit-
Re: the bento suggestion. AVOID

Bentos are crap if they aren't fresh at a restaurant. It's essentially convenience store food, even if sold by a place specializing in take-out bento. You get the choice between eating cold food (ick), reheating the food (ick), or eating food that has been held at a high temperature for a long time while it was being delivered or displayed for sale (ick).

Mmm, I made Oyakodon last night, which I've never had before. Very tasty. Thank for the recommendation(though I used a recipe that didn't need sake).

Jarvik, would you eat homemade bento? Wouldn't that be cold or need to be reheated?

Given a choice I'd rather eat freshly cooked food instead of soggy room temperature food (I assume you mean a home-made bento I'd then bring to work or something, not something I'd eat right away) I did eat bento made by my girlfriend every day when I was in university in Osaka. It saved money but I wouldn't say it tasted better than the cafeteria (Japanese cafeterias are awesome) let alone a good restaurant or fresh home cooking.

Being introduced to new foods in a convenience-over-taste form isn't really a good idea unless you have no other choice.

Jarvik7 Wrote:@daniel: That is American food imitating Japanese food. You might as well just eat a hamburger. Also, real sushi rice is a mixture of several ingredients including vinegar (but not the same vinegar that you buy at a normal store in the west), but also a number of other ingredients. You also use significantly more than a few drops of it.

Sure you can use normal vegetable vinegar instead of 純米酢, you can leave out all the other すし酢 ingredients, you can use the wrong amount of すし酢, you can use the wrong type of rice, you can use compressed filler crap(b) meat, you can use avocado, etc.. ..but you're no longer eating Japanese food. California rolls may taste good, but they (at most places I've tried them) taste nothing like sushi.

It would be like making a pizza but using sliced bread instead of dough, processed cheese slices instead of mozza, and ketchup instead of tomato paste.

Seconded. My girlfriend and every other Japanese person I know have told me that they were shocked when they first ate sushi in America because it is nothing like how it is in Japan. You can be sure that any sushi listed on a menu with the word "roll" did not originate in Japan.

When I was in Japan last December, I went to at least four different sushi restaurants. The majority of the sushi served at those restaurants were nigirizushi, in contrast to American sushi restaurants which primarily serve makimono. I wouldn't recommend eating nigirizushi at home, however, as it is much more difficult to prepare in comparison to makimono.

vileru Wrote:Seconded. My girlfriend and every other Japanese person I know have told me that they were shocked when they first ate sushi in America because it is nothing like how it is in Japan. You can be sure that any sushi listed on a menu with the word "roll" did not originate in Japan.

When I was in Japan last December, I went to at least four different sushi restaurants. The majority of the sushi served at those restaurants were nigirizushi, in contrast to American sushi restaurants which primarily serve makimono. I wouldn't recommend eating nigirizushi at home, however, as it is much more difficult to prepare in comparison to makimono.

There are a lot of places that serve their own crazy rolls like Spider/Caterpillar/Dragon/whatever, but from experience most of these are actually Korean owned. (They can be quite good too, maybe not authentic at all, but still delicious!) But almost all sushi places will serve nigiri if they serve rolls.

I would be wary of picking any sushi place on a leisurely drive through the city though. =)

Nigirizushi can be "easy" to prepare at home if you buy the blocks of fish at a Japanese market, but it's kind of expensive if you want more than one kind and the quality of your sushi is very dependent on how well you cut the fish as well as selecting the fish, which takes a ton of practice. (And at very high skill levels, your ability to cook rice is tested far beyond your ability to prepare the fish correctly.) If you're fine with amateur sushi night (as I crave once-in-a-while), then it's okay, but if you love your sushi with absolutely no gristle and as silky smooth as possible, it's probably better to go to your average sushi bar and get an omakase course.

Great thread!

TheVinster - I learned how to cook from my Japanese homestay mom. I'm otherwise quite hopeless in the kitchen - so you can do it too.

If this wasn't mentioned, try to find a cookbook containing simplified home-cooking (家庭料理) recipes and instructions for a non-Japanese kitchen. Japanese cooking can be quite labour intensive (and less nutritious) if you do things "authentically." There are shortcuts and substitutes (equipment, ingredients, methods) that don't compromise the taste. Some books have tips on shopping and meal planning and things that can be frozen.

I wouldn't call Japanese cooking "VERY easy". It obviously depends on what you are making. In my experience, a typical Japanese family dinner is more work than its Canadian equivalent. And fancy holiday foods can be very difficult. But there are plenty of delicious and inexpensive things you could make for yourself and your Dad.

But ...stay away from McDonalds!

So do you recommend a cookbook then, Thora? "Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art" was suggested, and it definitely has amazing reviews, but I'll assume it focuses on as much authenticity as possible. I imagine if I shopped at the Japanese market for everything it would become incredibly expensive.