How to use chopsticks (筷子)

So, after a brief introduction of Japanese cuisine history, you might find it the chopsticks plays an important role in asian food culture. It is always interesting to watch people using chopsticks for the first time, so if you are not familiar with using chopsticks, get yourself prepared so your friends won't laugh at you!

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Chopsticks originated in ancient China as early as the Shang dynasty (1766-1122 BC). The earliest evidence of a pair of chopsticks made out of bronze was excavated from Yin Ruins's Tomb 1005 at Houjiazhuang, Anyang, Henan, dated roughly 1200 BC.

There are several styles of chopsticks that vary in respect to:

• Length: Very long chopsticks, usually about 30 or 40 centimeters, tend to be used for cooking, especially for deep frying foods. In Japan they are called saibashi (菜箸). Shorter chopsticks are generally used as eating utensils but are also used for cooking.
• Tapering: The end of the chopsticks for picking up food are tapered to a blunt or a pointed end. Blunt end chopsticks provide more surface area for holding food and for pushing rice into the mouth. Pointed chopsticks allow for easier manipulation of food and for picking out bones from cooked fish. Pointed ends are also helpful in spearing the food, if the proper technique cannot be mastered. Spearing is seen, however, as improper etiquette.
• Material: Chopsticks are made from a variety of materials: bamboo, plastic, wood, bone, metal, jade, and ivory.
  • Bamboo and wood chopsticks are cheap, low in temperature conduction and provide good grip for holding food due to their matte surfaces. They can warp and deteriorate with continued use. Almost all cooking and disposable chopsticks are made of bamboo or wood. Disposable unlacquered chopsticks are used especially in restaurants. These often come as a piece of wood that is partially cut and must be split into two chopsticks by the user (demonstrating that they have not been previously used). In Japanese, these are known as waribashi (割り箸). Natural wood chopsticks, like natural wood food preparation surfaces, have an innate antibacterial property absent from other materials.
  • Plastic chopsticks are cheap, low in temperature conduction and are resistant to wear. Due to their composition, plastic chopsticks are not as effective as wood and bamboo chopsticks for picking up food as they tend to be slippery. Also, plastic chopsticks cannot be used for cooking since high temperatures may damage the chopsticks and produce toxic compounds.
  • Metal chopsticks are durable and easy to clean. They tend to be more expensive.
  • Materials such as ivory, jade, gold, and silver are typically chosen for luxury.
• Embellishments: Wooden or bamboo chopsticks can be painted or lacquered to decorate them and make them waterproof. Metal chopsticks are sometimes roughened or scribed on the tapered end to make them less slippery when picking up foods. Higher priced metal chopstick pairs are sometimes connected by a short chain at the untapered end to prevent their separation.

Enjoy you meal!

Japanese-style Rice Dishes

Hello everyone, today Nicole is going to introduce various kinds of Japanese rice dishes~

Firstly, i'd like to recommend a brand of raw Japanese sushi rice--- SunRice Japaneses Style Sushi Rice. As a sushi lover, I have to say that, rice choosing is the most basic yet important thing that you have to pay much attention on it.














SunRice Japanese Style Sushi Rice is a soft and tender short grain rice ideally steamed to accompany Japanese meals. When cooked it is clingy enough to be eaten with chopsticks. It is perfect for sushi, and is also great for rice desserts. Often mistakenly referred to as "sticky rice" which is not true. Sticky rice is a glutinous rice used mainly for desserts. For best results, rinse 3-4 times before cooking and do not cook with salt, to preserve the delicate flavour. SunRice Japanese Style Sushi Rice is available in 750g packs and you can find it in any Japanese/ Chinese/ Korean convenient supermarkets.
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NOW, here are some SPECIAL Japanese dishes based on rice.. I know you will love them! ^o^

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• Japanese-style plain Rice

Properly cooked rice is the foundation of a traditional Japanese meal, and you absolutely cannot skimp on the steps detailed here if you are aiming for anything approaching authenticity.

Rice is the staple of Japanese food, and making it just right can be rather difficult if you don't know how. If you think you will be preparing rice regularly, an electric rice cooker will make your life so much easier.

Japanese rice is a very particular variety. For traditional Japanese dishes you simply cannot substitute long-grain rice, jasmine rice, basmati rice, Carolina type rice, and so on. I sometimes hear people saying things like "But I can make onigiri with jasmine rice just fine, as long as I cook it so it's mushy and the grains stick together". No no no no no. A good onigiri, a good sushi roll, a good nigiri-zushi, and most of all a good bowl of rice does not have mushy rice.

Ideally, the rice should be quite fresh. The best rice is new rice called shinmai, purchased within 3 months of harvest. Unfortunately, it's just about impossible to buy rice that fresh outside of Japan. Just buy the best rice you can afford, such as the SunRice Japaneses Style Sushi Rice. Once you learn how to make rice properly, you will really taste the difference between different kinds of rice.

Some popular 'first grade' Japanese rice varieties include Sasanishiki, Koshihikari andAkita Komachi. They tend to be expensive.

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• Smoked Salmon Temari Zushi

This is another type of sushi which is great for parties. Temari are small cloth balls made from leftover scraps of kimono fabric, and temari zushi are meant to look like these colorful toys. You can make temari zushi with any number of things, such as thinly sliced sashimi grade fish, boiled and butterflied shrimp, thinly sliced and cooked or uncooked vegetables, and even thin slices of cheese. It is made by thinly cut slices of pale pink smoked salmon and tiny amount of cream cheese inside. It seems quite non-traditional but it’s a great combination. The key is to make the temari zushi on the small side since they are quite rich.
As with the hamaguri-zushi, these don’t require any soy sauce for dipping.











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• Shell-shaped sushi (Hamaguri-zushi)
  

As be shown, the first is hamaguri-zushi or clam sushi is supposed to look like a clam, but to me it looks just as much like a little yellow flower. It can be filled with any kind of sushi rice and, with lemony smoked salmon, mitsuba or flat-leaf parsley and white sesame seeds, wrapping in a usuyaki tamago or thin omelette. It’s related to chakin-zushi, where the omelette is wrapped in a bag shape and tied, but slightly less fiddly since all you have to do is fold it into quarters.
Besides making a very pretty spring party dish (for an appetizer maybe, or as part of a buffet), these work very well as bento items too since the sushi rice has good keeping qualities, and the omelette keeps the rice from drying out. Plus you can just grab them with your hands to eat.

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• Kurama Mixed Rice

Kurama Mixed Rice is an amazing Japanese rice dish mixed with soy sauce-infused chirimen jako (dried, salted, tiny fish, a fantastic ingredient we'll get to in a minute) and sansho (intensely aromatic, seductive accent, ditto about getting into in a minute). In addition, chirimen jako are tiny young sardines or anchovies that have been boiled then salted and dried, thus naturally preserved. You reconstitute them with boiling water and add to an omelet or quickly deep fry and sprinkle over salad or, well, rice.











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• Chestnut Rice

Chestnut rice is another incredible Japanese style rice with a play of delicate flavors. You steam the chestnuts with rice, brings out their natural sweetness in a much more subtle. The rice is a mixture of Japanese short grain rice and sticky (glutinous or sweet) rice, which creates a delightful texture and infuses even more of that natural sweetness. Finally, the sake and the salt here nicely pop all these tastes. The complexity of flavor you find in this simple dish is just amazing.

YOU HAVE TO TRY THEM!!!

In addition, both Kurama Mixed Rice and Chestnut Rice are selected from the blog The Japanese Food Report, it introduces lots of delicious Japanese special dishes and provides recipes, come and vist it!!

The History of Japanese Cuisine (日本料理)

Hi there! It's me Wesley again! So today I would like to introduce you the history of Japanese food. Since there are so many Japanese restaurants in Sydney nowadays and most people are really familiar with sushi and tempra, I think wouldn't it be nice that we start with the traditional style of Japanese food? So let's begin with the history of national cuisine, shall we?

Japanese cuisine has developed over the centuries as a result of many political and social changes. Back to the ancient era of Japanese history, the cultivation of rice was introduced from China. Rice was commonly boiled plain and called gohan or meshi, and, as cooked rice has since always been the preferred staple of the meal, the terms are used as synonyms for the word "meal." And also with the use of chopstick.  

Chopsticks, at first were used by nobility at banquets; they were not used as everyday utensils however, as hands were still commonly used with which to eat. Metal spoons were also used during the 8th-9th century, but only by the nobility. ining tables were also introduced to Japan at this time. Commoners used a legless table called a oshiki, while nobility used a lacquered table with legs called a zen. Each person used his own table. Lavish banquets for the nobility would have multiple tables for each individual based upon the number of dishes presented. Upon the decline of the Tang dynasty in the ninth century, Japan made a move toward its individuality in culture and cuisine. The abandonment of the spoon as a dining utensil is one of the marked differences, and commoners were now eating with chopsticks as well. Trade continued with China and Korea, but influence en masse from outside of Japan would not be seen again until the 19th century.



Japanese food is also influenced by some political reasons. For example, during the Kamakura period, the cuisine of the samurai came distinctly from their peasant roots. The meals prepared emphasized simplicity while being substantial. Specifically the cuisine avoided refinement, ceremony and luxury and a shedding of all further Chinese influence. One specific example is the change from wearing traditional Chinese garb to a distinct clothing style that combined the simplistic clothing of the common people.

Today, Japanese cuisine is still heavily influenced by the four seasons and geography. Seafood and vegetables are most commonly eaten. Whilst to some westerners, the food may seem almost bland, freshness, presentation and balance of flavours is of paramount importance.