Onion Dressing (オニオンドレッシング) is a salad dressing made with grated brown onion, Soy Sauce, and rice vinegar. This dressing is full of onion flavor, but not as harsh as you may think. It is not only good on regular salad, but it’s also great with grilled meat and seafood.
Cheese Hamburger Steak (チーズハンバーグ) is Japanese Hamburger Steak (or Hamburg Steak) with sweet and tangy sauce and cheese on top. Melted cheese adds another layer of flavor and texture to the sauce, and a lot of people enjoy it whether they are eating at restaurants or at home.
Pork Shabu Shabu is a Japanese hot pot dish with thinly sliced pork and vegetables. Meat and vegetables are cooked in a simple Kombu broth and dipped and eaten with Ponzu Sauce. Pork Shabu Shabu is an easy but wonderful dinner when coming back home from the chilly outside.
Shabu Shabu usually indicates a Japanese hot pot dish (all hot pot dishes are called “Nabemono” or ”Nabe”) with paper-thin sliced beef. But here it is with thinly sliced pork in place of beef. Instead of packing the pot with all the ingredients like Mizutaki, leave some room in the pot so that you can easily dip your thin meat in hot broth and swirl them around to cook. It should be cooked at the dinner table using a portable gas stove and eaten as we cook, the same as other Nabemono.
Tuna Cream Pasta (ツナクリームパスタ) is pasta, usually spaghetti cooked in creamy white sauce with canned tuna. The dish may be found at some restaurants, but it is mostly a western style Japanese home cooking dish. Although Tuna Cream Pasta doesn’t sound very Japanese, this easy and budget friendly pasta is one of the common everyday meals people eat in Japan.
Anko Butter Sandwich (あんバターサンド) is literally a sandwich with Anko sweet red bean paste and a slice of butter. Anko Butter Sandwich has been having a big boom for the last few years in Japan and you can find many kinds of Anko and butter bread products at bakeries and many other shops now.
Teriyaki Chicken Bowl is grilled chicken with sweet and salty Teriyaki sauce over Steamed Rice in a bowl. The all-time favorite entree Teriyaki Chicken has now turned into an even more casual entree. This one-dish meal will surely be a big hit for everyone from kids to adults.
Moyashi Ohitashi is bean sprout salad with mustard dressing and sesame seeds. It is a refreshing nice small side dish, and it goes well with any kind of Japanese meals, traditional or more western styles.
Okowa is seasoned sweet rice cooked with meat and vegetables. Okowa by itself can be a main dish in a meal because of the abundance of ingredients mixed in with the sticky rice. With Miso or some other soups, you can have a great meal with minimal cooking.
Suiton Soup is hot soup with soft dumplings simply made from flour and water. Suiton is almost always eaten at home not at restaurants. Our easy homemade Suiton with a lot of vegetables is so warm and filling. It is a perfect soup during the cold seasons.
Mochi (餅) is Japanese sticky rice cake used both in savory and sweet dishes. Mochi is usually made from “sweet rice” (also called Mochi rice and it’s not actually sweet by itself) cooked and pounded until it becomes a paste that is very sticky and smooth, then formed into cakes or blocks. It is often eaten in New Year’s Ozoni soup or baked with soy sauce. Mochi made from cooked sweet rice doesn’t stay fresh and soft too long, and usually needs to be grilled or reheated to be eaten later. Sweet Mochi, however, uses Mochiko (#ad) sweet rice flour and a lot of sugar, and it stays soft for an extended period of time at room temperature because of the large amount of sugar. It is elastic and malleable, and it can be shaped the way you want for various desserts. You may even see it at frozen yogurt shops in the US as a topping, which is actually Gyuhi (求肥) cut into mall bite size pieces.