Beyond Sushi

[BON]

Continuing from "English restaurant menus in Japan"

Please let me know your favorite Japanese food. I am expecting a lot of "foreign" Japanese as well as traditional ones.

[Jason Perlow]

Its difficult to say what is my favorite, but I love curry noodle soups, with other kinds of nabe in second place. I reallly like sukiyaki (but with not so sweet broth) and udon soups.

Sometimes I have huge cravings for yakitori and teriyaki -- and hibachi. Its difficult to find authentic yakitori or hibachi in the US though, mostly its at places like Benihana or Gasho. Its not bad for what it is but its not the same as an authentic japanese steak house.

sushi is great, although I consider it to be completely separate from japanese cuisine.

[ramenlight]

I've got to go with Hiroshima style Okonomiyaki and Mos Burger...  yum yum.. If anybody wants to start such restaurant in the US that offers the two, send me a note.

Japanese ramen is great too.. I also enjoy kitsune udon.

[jhlurie]

Negamaki, if well made.

[BON]

jhlurie:

Negamaki? Is it Negimaki? Negi means spring onion?

Is it a kind of sushi? Hope you don't feel to be kidding.

Will you describe it?

[Jason Perlow]

Negimaki: It must be called something else in Japan, or its a specifically Japan-american dish.

Essentially, it is a cut roll of green onion in the center, surrounded by ribeye steak and broiled in a teriyaki sauce. sometimes served as an appetizer or a main dish.

Apparently you -do- have something similar, but you call it a "beef roll"

http://www.bob-an.com/recipe/English/Beef/e00284.html

also one with bean sprout

http://www.bob-an.com/recipe/English/Beef/e00318.html

[BON]

Jason: Thank you for explaining Negimaki.

BTW, Okonomiyaki is a thin, flat cake of unsweetened batter fried with various ingredients, such as seafood, meats (pork is most popular) etc. according to your choice.

Pic and recipe are in Mos-Burger'>http://www.bob-an.com/recipe....-Burger is the second largest hamburger chain in Japan.(The largest is Mac as well as in US.) Mos-Burger is competing with taste and quality rather than convenience location or cheap price. I rarely eat hamburgers but like Teriyaki-Chicken burger of Mos.

[jhlurie]

Didn't think a careless misspelling would be so confusing. :)

Negimaki might seem to be a pretty conservative choice, but I've seen it done badly so often, and enjoyed it so much when done well, that I had to go with it.  I'm speaking specifically of the kind using ONLY scallions--green onions, since that might well be the distinction between it and other types of beef roll.  

About five or six times in my life I've had it done exactly right:  with the scallions still crunchy, not limp, the beef towards the middle of the roll still tender, but the beef on the outside done well just to the point of almost, but not quite, being burnt.  Then again, this may just be the way I like it and not the universal acknowledgement of perfection.

[Bux]

My favorite Japanese dish? That's hard to decide, but whatever it is, it would as served in Japan not here. Maybe I've not been to the right restaurants or maybe the surroundings are important to my appreciation. I might say cold buckwheat noodles, especially if I can have them outdoors in a little restaurant or stand in a park. I've ordered them here in NYC, but they were not the same. The dipping sauce did not have the same taste. It was missing herbs and there was no raw quail egg. It's a summer dish. When it gets colder, I will not miss it as much.

One thing I really loved in Japan was a breakfast of raw egg, nori seaweed and hot rice with a piece of preserved fish. I had okonomiyaki only once in a very new restaurant with not much atmosphere very near our hotel in Tokyo. I remember thinking that it was not so special and not so great, but that if this restaurant was as close to my home as it was to my hotel, I'd return about once a week.

I love all the noodle soups in Japan, but I can get very good noodle soups in NYC in Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese and Malaysian restaurants.

[ami]

My favourite japanese foods are:

for a small dish or side dish:

horenso no gomaae (spinch with sesame dressing)

or

sweetened soy beans.. i don't know what the name is but they are cooked in dashi/soy sauce/ and either some sugar or mirin.  very good.

For a Bigger dish:

oyako don (chicken and egg donburi)  This is my ABSOLUTE favourite thing to eat that is japanese, pretty simple to make too.

And for a snack:

my favourite japanese thing would be sweet potatoes cooked in a sweet soy sauce.  I forget what they are called but they look like little french fries when they are done they are crispy and sweet! or misumame, you can buy it at the store near my house and assemble it yourself.

[Jinmyo]

Agedashi tofu.

It's so simple: fresh fresh silken tofu rolled in corn starch or rice flour, deep-fried until crispy; served with a dashi with shoyu and mirin; garnished with grated daikon, slivered scallions, grated ginger.

When I make it, I double-fry the tofu and serve it separately from the dashi, using it as a dipping sauce.

Something about the contrasts in texture and temperatures and the creaminess of the tofu.

I've actually wept with joy eating this.

My next favourite is simply miso shiru.

But I love just about everything else except natto which I merely like.

[cabrales]

Chawanmushi, although I order this dish only when I believe there is a decent chance it will be appropriately prepared.

Edited January 21, 2003 by cabrales (log)

[Blue Heron]

I cannot resist shrimp tempura.

[CooksQuest]

Nikujaga (beef and potato stew).

But, man is it difficult to find. More of a home cooked dish...

[Schielke]

I have not made it to very many Japanese places to eat stuff other than sushi related items.

I used to go to a great little place in our University district that had really great beef and onion over rice, shu-mai, croquette, and curry over rice (Japanese style).

I really need to try more Japanese food other than sushi.

Ben

[TerrelK]

deep fried tofu with scallions in sauce. Can't think of the name, but it's very popular in Japan with a peanut flavor -- maybe, nochi?

[cabrales]

Deep fried tofu with scallions -- Agedashi or agedeshi tofu? That does not have a peanut sauce, typically.

[Stone]

Isnt' agedeshi just fried tofu? (My informal observations suggest that "age" is a prefix for fried.)

[cabrales]

Hmm -- good point. However, doesn't the exterior of agedeshi tofu suggest something other than just frying, although there is not the typical deep frying effects associated with tempura, say?

[ranitidine]

I love Japanese noodle dishes. There is a little place on West 56th Street, between 5th and 6th, on the south side of the street just in from 6th, that seems to attract Japanese students and serves a very wide variety of noodle dishes. It does close early, however--between 9 & 10 PM, I believe.

Edited January 22, 2003 by ranitidine (log)

[SobaAddict70]

that depends on either the restaurant or my mood.

usually either soba or ramen noodle dishes, or tofu. (Hiyayakko, e.g.)

I have yet to find a place that serves broiled tofu with miso paste, but I'll keep looking.

SA

[nightscotsman]

A good donburi is so comforting on a cold day. Katsu-don, ten-don, oyako-don, katsu-curry-don... it's all good.

There's a place a few block from me that makes a great aji-fry (mackerel breaded in panko and deep fried, served with katsu sauce).

If I see anything with yuba on the menu, I'm going to order it.

[cherrypi]

Unagi donburi or kaki-fry!

[torakris]

When I go to Japanese restaurants in the US, I use end up ordering a bunch of appetizers avoiding the teriyaki combo sets that seem to be everywhere.

I love anything with ponzu and am a sucker for sunomono the vinegared dishes usually consisting of cucumbers, wakame and a type of seafood. I always order shishamo, the grilled fish filled with eggs.

Agedashidofu is also a favorite.

Age the prefix meaning deep fried, agedashidofu is different from just agedofu (fried tofu) in that that there is a dashi based sauce poured around it. Plain agedofu has two main varieties the thick one called atsuage (atsu meaning a thick cut of tofu) and aburage the thin one, abura means oil so I guess it could be translated as oil fried which doesn't really make a lot of sense.

I also have to admit that I love that ginger baesed dressing they use on salads in the US, in 12 years in Japan I have never eaten anything like it.

Edited January 22, 2003 by torakris (log)

[Jinmyo]

Agedashi tofu.

I make mine with smallish cubes of fresh fresh fresh silken tofu, rolled in potato or corn starch three or four times. This forms a crunchy crust, inside which is creamy tofu. I serve the dashi on the side as a soup/dipping sauce, with much shoyu and ginger. A garnish/salad of grated daikon and slivered scallions.

I love this so much that more often than not I sob with gratitude and joy after eating only two or three cubes.

I just can't tell you.