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:)

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:)



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!

CHEESE CAKE

As  I told you before on the first blog article, I do love cheese cake!! I believe that cheese cake is the most delicious cake in the world. Today, I will introduce two baked-cheese cakes that I have eaten before.

Cream Cheese Tart

 Do you know "Quil fait bon"? It is a kind of cafe where you can take out tarts and cakes or you can eat them with coffee and tea. I went to quil fait bon in Aoyama with some of my friends. I ordered "Cream Cheese Tart" and "Matcha Tiramisu" with Earl Grey tea. They were so delicious!!!!!!! The cafe features French style, so the exterior and interior are very cute<3 There are some shops in Japan, if you get interested you should try them!
HP: http://www.quil-fait-bon.com/

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Cake 

This is what I ate yesterday at the restaurant, "Ocean Table." It is located near my house but I had not been there for a long time. The restaurans faces the sea and has some tables outside, so you can enjoy the meal as looking at the sea. It is an ordinary restanrant at dinner time but you can enjoy buffet at lunch time! I heard that you have to go and wait in front of the gate before it opens if you want to go there at lunch time because it is very popular and crowded all the time.

The white cream cheese cake with vanilla ice cream was very very very delicious. I loved it. My friend ordered "Caramel Oreo Cream Cheese cake"! It was a little bit bitter but vert tasty. There are 6 kinds of cheese cake and all of them looks delicious. The size of cake was much bigger than I expected so I was full when I ate half of it, though. 

HP: http://www.ksnetwork.com/chain/oceantable/minato/

I do love eating cheese cakes and also I do love making cheese cakes by myself.

This is what I made for Velentine's Day present for my boyfriend.

Actually I prefer baked cheese cake to rare cheese cake, but he prefers rare one, so I made it for the first time. I want to try some other kinds of cheese cake:)

If you have any recommendation of cafe or shop where we can have cheese cake, please please please tell me and take me there!

School Lunch

If you were born in Japan and grew up in Japan, does this lunch remind you of your school days?

This is the typical school lunch in Japan; rice, soup, fish or meat, vegetables, fruits and milk. Last week I went to the elementary school in Makuhari to support English classes as a volunteer. After the class, the teachers served us school lunch! I haven't had school lunch for a while, so I was very excited as if I got back to the elementary school!!!

Actually there are many kinds of school lunch among Japan. This picture on the right side is exactly what I have eaten in junior high school.

When I was in junior high, I didn't care about eating rice with milk, but now I cannot believe I eat rice and soup with milk together...

Anyway, Japaneseschool lunch is very healthy and well-balanced:) I like it!

Then, what kind of school lunch are eaten in other countries? I found some pictures of school lunch from some articles and blogs. I don't know whether it is true or not, though.

Korean school lunch

Rice, Kimchi, Banana, Kind of Noodle, Some Green and Soup.

How do they eat soup? With spoon? If anyone knows how to do it, please tell me!

Malawian School Lunch

They have lots of beans......isn't it too much?

Swedish School Lunch

I cannot figure out what is served on the plate but looks healthy!

French School Lunch

I love cheesecake!!! I want to eat it! But there are too much fries...

 American School Lunch (Healthy Ver.)

Low-fat milk, lots of beans and fruits! It looks very healthy:)

 American School Lunch 2

Apple sauce, Chocolate milk, Hash brown, Chiken Nuggets.

It doesn't look healthy and well-balanced....

I want to try it just once.

There are so many kinds of school lunch and it is influenced by their food culture.

After all, I do love Japanese food the best.

OOTOYA

Do you know "OOTOYA"?

It's Japanese restaurant where I have been working since I graduated from high school.Most of dishes are served with rice and miso-soup, so if you like Japanese style food please check this out! We have some kinds of foods used meat(chicken, pork), grilled fish, a bowl of rice topped with chicken and eggs(oyakodon), soba and udon. Those who live alone, in particular, should come to our restaurant and you can eat well-balanced healthy food. Also we have some sweets of maccha or small adzuki beans.

While I work at OOTOYA as a waitress, I am one of the fans of OOTOYA, too:) So I would like to introduce the most favourite set menu today.

CHICKEN AND VEGETABLES STIR-FRY

WITH BLACK VENEGAR SET

(790 yen 1075 kcal)

If you come to OOTOYA to have lunch or dinner for the first time, I strongly reccomend you to eat this menu.

This it the most popular of all the dishes. Fried chicken, fried root vegetables such as carrots and lotus root or popatoes are tossed with sweet-and-sour vinegar. If you don't like chicken, you have 2 choices; fried pork or fried cod fillets. 

PORK LOIN AND VEGETABLES STIR-FRY WITH BLACK VENEGAR SET (800yen 963kcal)

COD AND VEGETABLES STIR-FRY WITH BLACK VENEGAR SET (810yen 880kcal)

    

Also, we have some sweets. I love OOTOYA's sweet<3

Especially, I like this the best.

SOYMILK BLANCMANGE AND
MATCHA GREEN TEA PARFAIT



If you get intersted in OOTOYA, please come to eat. I'm sure you like it!!!!

We have Engllish menu, Chinese menu and Korean(Hankul) menu, so you can come there with your friends from abroad:) 

 

Malasada

Do you know "malasada"?

This is like a fried-doughnut.

Malasasa is one of my favorite sweets:)

★What's Malasada?

Malasada used to be one of the home cooking sweets in Portugal. "Malasada" means "sketchy" "awkward" in potuguese.

Long time ago, The Portuguese laborers immigrated to Hawaii to work for plantation and they brought their traditional food cultures to the place where they worked in Hawaii. They were Catholic and they had to use up lard or suger before Lent. Then they made "malasada" using lard or suger and served them for other laborers from different races. This is the way "malasada" spread out in Hawaii. Now, "malasada" is one of the standard Hawaiian sweets.

Today, I introduce a Hawaiian cafe where you can eat "malasada" in Tokyo.

★Hawaiian cafe naninani★

This cafe is located in Toyosu, near Lalaport Toyosu.

In this cafe, you can take out some Malasada, coffee, Spam-musubi or you can eat there listening to Hawaiian music.

Menu: Malasada Donuts (suger, cinnamon, soybean flour)

Malasada Ice Sand (caramel, chocolate)

Spam-musubi

some coffee and juice

I strongly reccomend this Malasada Ice sand!!!!!

cold ice in hot malasada:p

If you taste Malasada once, you would be addicted to Malasada!

For your infomation: Hawaiian cafe naninani [http://naninani.jp/index.html]