Japanese Lesson # 3: Food Part 2

As I said in the last lesson, this post will be all about sushi. :D

When you go to Japanese restaurants, you notice that there are lots of different kinds of sushi, and that's what I'll be discussing first.

Common Types of Sushi in the Philippines: (I'm not including obscure sushi that are common elsewhere but not here)

1. Nigiri-zushi - this is common in Jap. restaurants here in the Philippines. Nigiri-zushi is simply a topping (like a slice of raw fish, or tamagoyaki) placed on top of sushi rice.
2. Maki-zushi (roll) - MAKI 巻 means roll, and can actually apply to any kind of roll (like spring rolls). Obviously maki is called maki because it IS a roll. It's commonly made with an outer layer of NORI 海苔 or seaweed, sushi rice and some topping in the middle.
• Temaki 手巻き - literally means hand rolls. In this case, it's a piece of NORI rolled into a conical shape, filled with sushi rice and topping.
• Futomaki 太巻き - literally large rolls. It's basically just giant maki. In One Pound Gospel, Kousaku tries to eat one of these. :D
• Hosomaki 細巻き - literally thin rolls. This is the common type of maki with nori on the outside and sushi rice and topping inside.
• Kappamaki 河童巻き - cucumber hosomaki. Called "Kappa" which is a Japanese legendary creature that likes to eat cucumber. (In the Harvest Moon for GBA, if you throw cucumber in the lake, a kappa appears. In the girl version of the game, you can even marry the kappa. XD)
  
• Uramaki 裏巻き - According to Wikipedia, literally inside-out rolls. An example of this is California Maki, where in the sushi rice is outside rather than inside the nori.

The next part, I will basically just list Japanese terms for ingredients used in sushi. :D

1. Sushi Meshi - MESHI 飯 means rice. So Sushi Meshi is sushi rice. It's that easy! (It is commonly seasoned with vinegar, sugar, salt and other spices. That's why they taste good!)
   
2. Sake - Japanese rice wine. sometimes used to season sushi rice. It's very common, and you can see it in a lot of animes/doramas.
3. Tamagoyaki 卵焼き - Tamago 卵 means egg, yaki 焼き means grill. Tamagoyaki is grilled egg! Haha not really. It's actually omelette, usually sweetened and seasoned with soy sauce. That's why it's so yummy! Have I ever mentioned that it's my favorite?
4. Toro - Tuna (there are actually a lot of kinds of tuna. An example is Otoro, which is "fatty tuna" and in Ouran High School Host Club, Haruhi dreams of eating it. :D )
   
5. Sake - Salmon (different from Sake the rice wine. sometimes romanized as Shake, in menus I've seen)
   
6. Unagi - Eel
7. Uni - sea urchin (not yummy! it's slimy and brownish and looks like custard... haha)
8. Tako - octopus (TAKOYAKI 蛸焼 is a dumpling-like thing with octopus in it. There have been a lot of takoyaki stands here in Manila lately, but of course, they put squid and not octopus in them. Tetsu and Minoru in Gokusen (the dorama) make Takoyaki. There is also Takoyaki sold at Le Croissan... haha :D Beware though, sometimes they're panis)
9. Masago - fish roe (the orange ones you see on California maki)
   
10. Shoyuu - soy sauce
11. Wasabi - uh, wasabi? :D

Special Lesson: ONIGIRI is not sushi, Japanese rice (not sushi rice) molded into a triangular shape, often with a nori "handle" on one side on which you're supposed to hold it. It sometimes is colored into different colors, such as green with nori, or pink with ______ (I forgot. I'll fill the blank in when I remember. It's called Sakura something (this is not a My Boss My Hero reference ;) ), so if you know, please tell me! it's some kind of fish that's dried, sweetened, colored pink and powdered.) Also, a lot of people but nori faces on their onigiri, especially in bento.

BENTO 弁当 is a lunchbox, homemade or store-bought, filled with different foods. Homemade bentos are wrapped in a handkerchief (there's even a special way to wrap the bento box) for the student/worker to take to school/work. The goal of making bento is packing the food together tightly so nothing moves around or spills. Also, people usually enjoy designing the bento and making cute designs on them :D

FURIKAKE is a seasoning consisting of dried and ground fish, sesame seeds, chopped seaweed, sugar, salt, and monosodium glutamate. It's usually used on rice and sometimes on onigiri. :D

^_~

AND THAT'S IT FOR TODAY!

Thanks for reading... this was more of a walkthrough of Japanese food rather than a Japanese lesson, but since the class I'm going to take is "Japanese Language and Culture", I might as well learn more about Japanese "Culture"*ahem food*. :D

As you saw in my last post, I succeeded in getting a slot in the JSP class. Wish me luck!