My Favorite Food

I like Japanese food very much. My favorite Japanese food is Sashimi and Shabu-shabu. But they are too expensive to eat everyday.
I like udon very much. I like tanuki-udon very much. I also like tanuki-soba. And I like kitsune-udon/soba also. Tanuki udon(soba) is a bowl of udon(soba) in hot soup with tenkasu (crunchy bits of deep fried tempura batter), and kitsune udon/soba is topped with seasoned deep-fried bean curd. Tanuki means raccoon dogs and kitsune means foxes. But I heard, they call kitsune-soba tanuki in Kansai area. I don’t know why, it’s confusing.

I sometimes eat ramen, too. I don’t eat instant ramen very often. I like cooking ramen myself.
I can cook udon, soba, and ramen by myself. It’s easy. I try to prepare as many kinds of toppings as I can.
Our family like aka-miso for miso-soup. I make miso-soup almost everyday in winter. In summer, I hate cooking and eating hot meals. So I rarely make miso-soup. Many Japanese people eat miso-soup for breakfast, but our family eat bread and milk for breakfast, so I make miso-soup only for dinner.

 　

Until a few decades ago, many of Japanese people took it granted that men work to provide for their family while their wives stay home and manage the household. But now more and more women want full-time jobs, and choose to be working wives. Women are likely to expect greater mutuality and companionship in marriage.
I do expect greater mutuality and companionship in marriage, too.
I think these changes will effectively alter the Japanese perception that homemaking and child care are primary a woman’s responsibility.
I agree to the idea that men will also have to be responsible for homemaking and child care.
My father didn’t do any housekeeping work. I think he was a typical Japanese husband.
When I was young, I often helped my mother cook.
When I raised my children, I always told them to do dishes themselves when they have time.
Now I live only with my husband, I usually do the dishes, but my husband does the dishes very often, too.

When my family has sukiyaki, I prepare it. My family’s sukiyaki cooking is inherited from my mother.
The first thing I attend to when I prepare sukiyaki is to go to the supermarket and get good beef. The best beef for sukiyaki is so called shimofuri-niku, that is well-marbled beef with thin streaks of fat. Other than that, I add leeks, noodles made from konnyaku, grilled tofu, kamaboko( boiled fish paste), Chinese cabbage, and shiitake-mushrooms.
I sprinkle the meat with a little sugar, and at the same time I sprinkle the ingredients with a small cup of sake. Then I pour in soy sauce.
When I smell the good smell of the meat being sauteed in the soy sauce, I can’t wait any more.

　　　　　　　　　　　

When I eat sukiyaki, I put a raw egg in a bowl, beat it and dip the ingredients in it.
I cook udon in the remaining thick broth.
I didn’t know many Americans do not like sugar because they think sugar will make them fatter, even though they love sweet cakes and other sweets as long as they can’t see the sugar in spite of the fact these sweets contain lots of sugar.
As for raw eggs, Americans simply don’t have the habit of eating raw eggs.
It’s possible to cook sukiyaki without sugar in case you have American guests. You can get pre-sweetened soy sauce at the supermarket.

Many people think that Americans and Europeans hate eating raw fish. But it’s not true. Today many western people do love sushi. I think they just didn't have the habit of eating raw fish like raw eggs.
My husband and I occasionally go to sushi bar. I mean, kaiten-zushi.
When we go to a sushi bar, we usually sit at the bar table.
My favorite toppings are squid, tuna, salmon, and yellowtail.
I have temakizushi, hand-rolled sushi at home. I prepare some sashimi, tamago-yaki, kani-kama, cucumber, ooba, etc. for the fillings.

　　　　　　　　　　　　

I hadn’t thought curry rice was a Japanese dish.
I didn’t know that curry rice originated in Japan, and it was a Japanese invention.
Curry powder was brought to Japan at the end of Edo period.
Curry rice began to be served in Japanese restaurants in the late Meiji period.
The Japanese version of curry roux was developed and began to be sold in prepackaged blocks for easy preparation. Since then, Japanese housewives started to cook curry rice at home.
I liked my mother’s curry rice since my early childhood.