Saturday, December 17, 2011

Christmas Dishes in the World

 It is in the middle of December and Christmas is coming<3
Do you have any plan on Christmas Eve and Christmas?
What are you going to have for dinner on Christmas?
Nowadays Christmas is very popular in Japan and many shops or trees are decorated by linghts or ornaments beautifully.


 
Christmas Fancy Cake
 
Then, I talk about what they eat on Christmas in the world today!
First of all, what do we Japanese eat on Christmas?
Most Japanese imagine that the table is spread with Christmas cake and fried chicken.

Fried Chicken
Most Christmas cakes in Japan are fancy cakes. It is said that "Fujiya" made the very first beginning of Christmas cake in Taisho era. I guess that fried chicken sold in KFC is the most popular in Japan. Christmas dishes in Japan is influenced by American Christmas meals, but it was hard to get turkey in Japan, fried chiken became popular.


Northern Europe


Ris a la Malta


Julskinka
 
In Norther European countries such as Norway or Finland, roasted pork is eaten for main dish on Christmas. The roasted ham is called "Julskinka" and it is also known as "Christmas Ham". They roast a chunk of ham rub with salt, then put mustard on it, dust ham with bread crums and eggs. Also they eat rice-pudding called "Ris a la Malta" with jam. Their dishes are different from what we eat in Japan.




The U.K.


Christmas pudding
 They have Roast beef or turkey on Christmas. Their traditional Christmas cake is "Christmas pudding." It is like a pound cake (called madeira cake in England) which many kinds of dried-fruits are used in.
I didn't know that a pudding like this are eaten in U.K., I want to try it.
They put a ring, a coin or a thimble into a pudding and tell thier fortune according to what they get in a piece of cake after cutting cake. It is said that you can get married early if you find a ring in it, you can be rich if you find a coin in it, you might remain single for life if you find a thimble in it.


Germany


Stollen

On Christmas, they eat traditional dishes such as meal used pork, sausages, potatoes in Germany. The most popular cake is "Stollen." According to Wikipedia, "a Stollen is a loaf-shaped cake containing dried fruit, and covered with sugar, powdered sugar or icing sugar. The cake is usually made with chopped candied fruit and/or dried fruit, nuts and spices."





These are their tradtional Christmas meals in other countries.
My mother makes a chocolate fancy cake on Christmas every year. This year, I am thinking about making other kind of cake for my mother and father with my younger brother. We both like making sweets, so I want to try it:)

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Moomin cafe

Do you know "moomin cafe"?
"Moomin cafe" is a restaurant where is located in Tokyo Dome City.
You can enjoy many kinds of Northern European meals and bread, also goods imported from Finland, spoons, forks and tongs which has moomin characters are sold in the restaurant!!

When you enter the restaurant, big moomin family welcome you!!!!!
They are sooooo cute, aren't they?


I went there last year, so I don't know whether you can have the same dises or not but I introduce what I ate.
The picture on the left side is what my boyfriend ate: meatballs, mashed potatoes, white stew. The mashed potatoes is shaped moomin....not moomin? Macaroni in the stew is shaped "Nyoronyoro"! That's so cute!! The photo on the right side is what I ate: beef stroganoff:) The rice looked Moomin! It was very delicious and cute<3

Also you can eat many kinds of Northern European bread and bread shaped charatcters!!
This photo is not what I had before and I found it on the net. What I ate was not shaped these kinds of bread but bread which is very drier than I usually eat. They use dried-fruits into bread because I guess the countries are located in Nothern area and it's very cold.

I've never been to Northern Europe but I would like to go there someday....
This restaurant makes you feel like going to Finland!
If you are interested in it, please check it out:)




Saturday, December 3, 2011

Japanese food culture

RED  RICE

Of course, you know "red rice", right?
I'm sure you have eaten it at least once if you are Japanese, I have some friends who don't like it though.
I like "red rice" very much and my mother cooks it when we celebrate something. I had thought all the Japanese eat red rice put a mixture of salt and parched sesame seeds on it but there are some kinds of red rice in Japan and the taste varies depending on the region. My mother is from Aomori, my father is from Yamanashi. I was born in Chiba and I have brought up in Chiba for 21 years. I have eaten red rice with salt and sesame seeds from childfood but one day, my mother told me that red rice which her mother had cooked was very sweet because she used sugared beans instead of small azuki beans in her hometown! When I heard of it I was very surprised and I couldn't imagine the sweet red rice!!!
That is why I'm going to talk about red rice here:)

First of all, WHAT'S RED RICE?

According to Wikipedia, red rice is glutinous rice (mochi-gome) and some "uruchi-mai" steamed with azuki beans, so it is one of "Okowa."
Red rice is traditional Japanese dish.

WHY RED?

Long time ago, they ate red rice in order to drive devils or misfortune out of them. They believed that red meant driving off bad things, so they had it in misfortune. Now, we usually eat it on special occasion such as wedding or "Shichi-go-san" as a celebratory dish.


This red rice is what I usually eat at my home. It is glutinous rice steamed with azuki beans and we put a mixture of salt and parched sesame seeds on it. Its taste is not sweet. 
My mother tasted this red rice when she went to my father's hometown for the first time and she had thought that that was not red rice, she believed that sweet red rice was red rice. Now she used to this kind of red rice, though.  






This is glutinous rice steamed with sugared beans (amanatto). This type of red rice is eaten in Tohoku-region (Hokkaido, Aomori, Iwate, etc.) and some parts of Yamanashi. Some people steam rice with food red (syoku-beni) to make rice red.






In Nigata, they eat this red rice which is called "soy sauce red rice". They use soy sauce, so the color is not red, but blown, even though they call "Sekihan."
I didn't know that! It's interesting!
Does anyone come from Nigata in our class?



In Fukui, they boil glutinous rice with azuki beans and taro (Satoimo)!!!!! It looks like "chestnut rice"!
I love taro, and I want to try it:) looks delicious!

...Does anyone come from Fukui?


What does red rice that you eat look like?

We, Japanese, have the same traditional dish but its taste or the way of cooking varies depending on where they live or where they are from. We have many things that we don't know even we live in Japan for a long time!