Cooking in Japan

Ever since we've moved into our apartment, I've been able to cook a lot - and I've made it a goal to try and cook traditional Japanese food - and trying to make things I haven't before. So far, it's been pretty successful! So here are some of my adventures in cooking!

Here is something I've known how to cook for a while: Udon! I quickly discovered that shitake mushrooms are really cheap here, so I've been putting those in just about everything I cook.

Tempura, or veggies and shrimp dipped in batter and then deep fried in oil. I've also known how to make this for a while. However, I did get to try Japanese pumpkin tempura, and that was way delicious! This batch included: green beans, onion, sweet potato, potato, pumpkin, mushrooms, carrots, and shrimp.

A stir-fry using a variety of mystery sauce! I can't read Kanji (complex Chinese characters) So I often guess what kind of sauce I am buying. It makes things more interesting that way. (Salad and Miso soup on the side.)

I also made fish for the first time! Our stove has a fish grill attached to it, so it makes cooking fish super easy. Also, fish is relatively cheap here. I can get three slices of fish (Like the one above) for about 300 yen (about 3 US dollars), and often half that price if you buy it close to its expiration date. So we can buy a meals worth of fish for 150 yen sometimes. Awesome! We have decided to eat fish often.

More fish, with edamame, steam cooked soybeans.

More fish, but this one I had to cut and de-bone myself. Not fun, especially with a wimpy kitchen knife.

I've also tried my hand at curry! You can buy the sauce premade in packets for cheap. I used that for this curry, but added all sorts of goodies in it, such as carrot, beef, potato, and pumpkin.

This is a type of cream dish on rice. I put chicken, pumpkin, carrot and onion in it. (I'm kinda going to a pumpkin thing right now...)

So we've been eating a lot healthier than we did in college and it's been great! Already, both Jacob and I have lost weight since we've gotten here. (Jacob has lost about 30 pounds in the past month.) It's actually harder to eat unhealthy food here, cause junk food is so ridiculously expensive! Instead, we've been buying more fruit. The picture above are some grapes we bought. They were huge!

So there you go, proof that I am not starving my husband. :)