Miso Hungry Podcast

We all know foreign countries have lots of rules that are strange to us... especially when it comes to Japan! *

But since we're foreigners, it's expected that we can't possibly remember all their etiquette rules... so it's totally fine to throw all manners to the wind! **

To help you out with that, here are:

20 easy ways to brake all the rules when it comes to chopsticks

When you want to set your chopsticks down, stick them in your rice so that they stand straight up!

(Instead, always lay the chopsticks horizontally on the edge of a dish or on the chopstick rest. Why? Because this is the way a bowl of rice is offered to the spirit of a dead person, at their deathbed or in front of their photograph on the household Buddhist altar. Crossing your chopsticks on the table or food is also considered to be a no-no for the same reason, but the upright-in-rice thing is the worst.)

Pass food to your eating companion by having them take it from between your chopsticks with their chopsticks!

(Don’t pass food from your chopsticks directly to someone else’s. The proper way is for you to place the food down in between yourself and the other person, on a plate. Then they can pick it up from there with their own chopsticks. Why? When a person dies and is cremated, their bones are passed from chopstick to chopstick as a part of the Buddhist funeral ritual. You should also not pick up one piece of food with two pairs of chopsticks (held by two people).)

If you're having trouble picking up a piece of food with chopsticks, just stab it with a chopstick!

(Don’t spear your food in order to pick it up. Food must always be pinched between the two chopstick ends. Chopsticks are always used together, as if they are attached to each other invisibly. Think of them as tweezers or tongs, not a pair of skewers... spearing food is bad. Just sayin’.)

If you can't choose between two pretty pairs of chopsticks, no worries... just use one of each!

(Do not use unmatched chopsticks. Why? Well for one, it looks funny. But it is also reminiscent of some funeral rites... always unlucky.)

If you've got food stuck to your chopsticks, you should totally wash your chopsticks off in your drink.

(... ew.)

Instead of putting your chopsticks down, just hold them in your mouth... it's so much more convenient!

(Don’t leave your hashi in your mouth while you do something else with your hands, like pick up plates or bowls. Hello, dangerous!)

Chopsticks make excellent swords!

(Do not use your hashi as toys.)

And we all know chopsticks are great drumsticks, too!

(Do not pretend your hashi are drumsticks and pound the table with them.)

Hey look... if I stick my chopsticks between my upper lip and my gums, I look like a vampire!

(Ahem. Manners, people!)

And if I stick them up my nose, I look like a walrus!

(Do remember you will be eating with these later...)

I have long hair, and a pretty pair of chopsticks, so I'm just going to stick them in my hair... isn't that pretty?

(There do exist hair accessories that look very similar to hashi, but it's generally better not to use hashi that you plan to eat with as hair accessories.)

When you break apart your disposable wooden chopsticks, rub them together to make sure all the splinters are gone before you eat with them!

(This is actually an insult - by rubbing your chopsticks together, you are implying that the restaurant is cheap and is providing you with subpar chopsticks... definitely not something you want to be pointing out, even if true!)

On a side note, if you're eating sushi, you should definitely mix your soy sauce and wasabi together... because it's DELICIOUS.

(Wasabi and shoyu are meant to be enjoyed as two separate condiments, not as a single paste. This is an easy way to make yourself stick out as a foreigner!)

Sucking on your chopsticks to get every last bit of sauce and deliciousness is highly encouraged!

(You wouldn't lick your plate at a restaurant,

Have you entered our Zojirushi rice cooker giveaway yet? If not, don't forget to head on over and enter... the contest ends tomorrow!

Chopsticks are called hashi in Japanese. They are also known as otemoto or o-temoto, a phrase which is commonly printed on the wrappers of disposable chopsticks. "Te" means hand and "moto" means the area under or around something.

Chopsticks are a pair of long stick-like implements, most commonly made of wood, bamboo, or plastic (though they can also be made of metal, bone, or ivory). Hashi are held in the dominant hand and used to to grab and pick up your food (don't stab your food with them!)

Japanese hashi are shorter length sticks (in comparison to those used in other countries), tapering to a finely pointed end. Japanese chopsticks are traditionally made of wood or bamboo and are lacquered. It is common for Japanese sticks to be of shorter length for women. Children's chopsticks, which are much smaller than adult-sized chopsticks, are also common... as are "trainer" chopsticks, like these:

There is also a way to make "trainer" chopsticks out of the disposable wooden chopsticks that you find at most Asian restaurants. Rachael made a handy video showing how to make them:

http://youtu.be/uTWt3gRg-0c

Hashi History

Hashi have been around for a very long time. They are generally believed to have originated in ancient China. They are also found in some areas of Tibet and Nepal that are close to Han Chinese populations, as well as areas of Thailand, Laos, and Burma which have significant Chinese populations.

Hashi has been found in ancient China as early as the Shang dynasty (1766-1122 BC). The earliest evidence of a pair of hashi, made of bronze, were dated to be roughly from 1200 BC.

The first hashi were probably used for cooking, stirring the fire, serving or seizing bits of food, and not as eating utensils.

Hashi began to be used as eating utensils during the Han Dynasty. Japan has had hashi as part of their traditional eating utensils for thousands of years.

Hashi Varieties

Waribashi (割り箸） are those wooden chopsticks that you need to break apart.

"My Hashi" are reusable chopstics are known as my hashi, meaning "my chopsticks". These are hashi that you carry around with you, as your personal chopsticks that you use instead of waribashi.

Saibashi (cooking chopsticks) are recognizeable by their length, and are used for both cooking and arranging food for the table. The longer the chopsticks, the farther away from the stove you can be, making saibashi wonderful for grasping, flipping, poking, stirring, etc. Saibashi can be used in lieu of tongs or a spatula, etc.When blanching foods, saibashi permit you to remove just one piece from the hot water to test for doneness.When foods are done, saibashi allow you to pluck out all of them, avoiding the need to drain the pot. This means you can use the same pot of boiling water to blanch several foods in succession.You can use saibashi to place, stack, and coax foods into mounds on a plate for serving.

Hashi How-To

With the proper hand position and a little practice, you too can learn to eat with chopsticks!

Hold the thick end of one chopstick between the base of your thumb and your hand. Rest the thin end on the tips of your last two fingers, which should be slightly curved. This chopstick will stay still.

Then take the other chopstick and hold it between the tips of your first two fingers and tip of your thumb. Curve your fingers.

To pick something up, move the top chopstick up and down.

Hashi Hilarity

So... we're sure you're wondering now, what happens when you take waribashi to a food blogger conference, and ask people to eat their lunch with them? Of course, we had to find out. So off we went to Camp Blogaway a few weeks ago, waribashi and iPhone camera in hand:

http://youtu.be/lm59whJnCXE

Big thanks to Lynne Hermer, Dara Michalski, Becky Spenser,

Have you entered our Zojirushi rice cooker giveaway yet? If not, don't forget to head on over and enter!

Miso. It's about time we talked about it... it is a part of our podcast's name, after all!

Alright... so we know miso is important ...

Make sure you don't miss the Zojirushi giveaway we're doing!

How is rice grown?

In Japan, young seedlings are first raised in nursery beds until they are large enough to be transplanted into water-filled paddy fields during the rainy month of June.

The rice needs a long, hot growing season and a warm, dry maturing period before the harvest in autumn. In general, it requires high maintenance, skilled land management, and good luck with the weather.

How to buy and store rice

The flavor of newly harvested rice in late autumn is considered to be the best.

Polished rice should be stored in an airtight container in a cool, dark, and dry place and eaten as soon as possible.

Certain Italian rices can be used as a substitute for Japanese rice. Italian rices typically used for making risotto, such as Arborio and Vialone can be used if you can’t find Japanese rice where you live.

How to cook rice

If you want rice that is tender, flavorful, glossy, and moist, then you must remove all of the surface starch from the raw rice kernels before cooking them, which means you have to wash the rice.

Put the rice in a large bowl and cover it with cold water. Stir and swish the rice vigorously (it will become cloudy). Drain the rice then repeat the procedure with fresh cold water. Continue until the rinsing water runs clear. Drain the washed rice well after the final rinsing.

When cooking Japanese-style rice, the amount of cooking water is always slightly more than the amount of raw rice. In fact, the first way we learned to measure out water and rice ratios for cooking was by using our hands! The water level should rise about 1/3 inch above the rice (some people measure using the tip of their thumb, or their entire hand).

Plain boiling is the classic way to cook rice. Now nearly every Japanese household uses a rice cooker, but you can still make it the traditional way on the stovetop!

A Japanese song describes the cooking process:

Hajime choro-choro (At first it bubbles)

Naka pa-ppa (and then it hisses)

Akagao ga naite mo (even if the baby is crying from hunger)

Futa toru na! (never remove the lid!)

So basically, place the pot over high heat and bring the water to a rolling boil. The song will help you recognize clues to where you are in the process so that you don’t have to lift the lid! You will know the water is boiling when you hear bubbling noises and see the lid begin to dance (this is the choro-choro line). Then reduce the heat to low and continue to cook for about 5 minutes, or until you hear a low hissing sound (the naka pa-ppa stage). Increase the heat to high again for 30 seconds to dry off the rice, then remove from the heat, still tightly covered, and let it stand for at least 10 minutes. The rice is NOT done at this point! It will use those 10 minutes to do a final self-steaming to reach the proper texture.

Of course, if you eat rice more than once a week, then a rice cooker is well wroth the investment! Cookers allow you to set the cooker to work when you aren't around and will keep the rice fresh for several days.

And most importantly, how do you eat rice?

Bowl of plain white rice: Plain rice is traditionally served in an individual bowl with a separate bowl of miso soup. This is the simplest Japanese meal and other dishes, no matter how elaborate they may be, are mere accompaniments to the rice.

Donburi mono: Big bowls of plain boiled rice served with different toppings and sauces as a one-bowl meal, often for lunch.

Oyako donburi: Chicken and egg over rice.

Tendon: Tempura of fish and vegetables over rice.

Katsudon: Pork cutlet over rice.

Gyudon: Sauteed beef over rice.

Unadon: broiled seasoned eel over rice.

Sushi

Onigiri

Gomokumeshi: Rice boiled with small pieces of vegetables (usually five different kinds). Some people add small bits of fish or chicken.

Kayu: Rice porridge.

Last week, we talked about seaweed. This week (and next week), rice! (Hey, that means we're halfway to sushi!)

Rice is important. Super important. In fact, it's one of the most important topics we could talk about because of the HUGE influence it's had on Japanese society and culture. Rice is more than a staple food — it’s the soul of the nation, and the whole of Japanese cuisine has developed around it.

Gohan, the word for "cooked rice" in Japanese, also means "a meal." The two words are interchangeable. In fact, gohan is used to form the words for the meals of the day:

asagohan = breakfast

hirugohan = lunch

bangohan = dinner

This makes it almost impossible for most Japanese to think of a meal without rice!

Since ancient times in Japan, the person who grew the most rice and managed the land that the rice was cultivated on had political power. Rice was the alternative currency and was the most important source of tax revenue. Carbon dating indicates that rice was first introduced in the 13th century BC and then brought to southwest Japan from China.

Historically, all parts of the rice plant were used. Rice stalks were used to make tatami mats, rice bran was used as a facial scrub, and rice paste was used in bookbinding, as well as for a resist-dye technique for fabrics (especially silk for kimonos).

Rice is part of almost every religious ceremony and seasonal festival in Japan, and also appears in popular folktale culture: while in the U.S. we refer to the man in the moon, in Japan they see a rabbit pounding mochi (rice cakes)!

Can you see it?

As Japan developed, the villages located on sites favorable for rice cultivation were better fed and wealthier. The first nation was formed in the 3rd century AD by a large agricultural clan, who later became Japan’s imperial family. Even to this day, the Japanese emperor has a small rice paddy that he attends to himself inside the imperial palace grounds.

Rice made Japan into an industrious nation because its production cannot be carried out by a single farmer — it requires a community effort. As a result, families pooled their labor and shared water resources and irrigation facilities. People lived in houses clustered together and depended heavily upon each other, since the rice was usually planted on the same day after several days of watering.

This necessitated an emphasis on group interests, the enhancement of skills in group decision-making and the avoidance of friction between families who would be neighbors and co-workers for generation. This commitment to group harmony is still seen today throughout Japanese society.

Because Japan is so mountainous, with very few plains suitable for rice cultivation, rice has always been in short supply. It wasn’t until the 1960s that Japan’s rice production finally exceeded its consumption. This relative scarcity helps explain why the Japanese regarded it as a sacred food for the rich and powerful.

Types of Japanese Rice

Three major groups of Japonica rice are grown in Japan.

uruchi mai: This is Japanese-style short-grain rice (sometimes also labeled as medium-grain). This covers most of what is grown and eaten in Japan. The grains are removed from their husks and polished. When cooked, they become tender and moist, but retain an al dente texture. They are also slightly sticky, so it is possible to pick up a mouthful with chopsticks.

genmai: This is Japanese-style brown rice. There are different degrees of polishing, and genmai is the least polished type. Traditionally all rice was eaten unpolished, with only the outer husk removed. Brown rice is higher in fiber and the most nutritious, because it retains more vitamins and minerals. It requires a much longer cooking time and is chewier and nuttier in taste. Genmai is regaining popularity in Japan because of its health benefits.

mochi gome: Sometimes called “sweet rice” or “glutinous rice”,

This week, we're talking seaweed... or as we like to call it, sea vegetables.

In Japanese, the word for seaweed is "kaiso". Kaiso are an important part of the Japanese diet. The Japanese have been harvesting them for thousands of years, both wild and cultivated. Kaiso are highly nutritious (many sea vegetables are especially rich in calcium) and a source of flavor enhancement (naturally occurring glutamates).

Although it's already passed, did you know that April 14th is Nori Day? In Shibushi, Japan, April 14th is Nori Day to honor the nori industry and Kathleen Drew-Baker, an English botanist whose research in red algae led to breakthroughs in technology that led to large-scale nori cultivation being possible. To the Japanese, she is known as “Mother of the Sea”... a huge honor!

Kombu

Kombu is an extremely important sea vegetable in the Japanese pantry. It is used primarily to make stocks (such as dashi) because of its abundant, naturally occurring glutamates. Kombu is gathered in the shallow waters off Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island.

The best variety, rishiri kombu, is 1/8” thick, 5” to 8” wide and grows anywhere from 5’ to 8’ long. When purchased in a specialty shop in Japan, it comes dried in full lengths, or is precut into convenient sizes, which are packed in flat plastic envelopes. It pays to buy the best quality you can find, as its subtle flavor varies widely. However, it might be hard to find the best varieties in the US.

Kombu has virtually no protein, but is high in calcium, carotene, iron and iodine. It is thought to contain cancer-fighting ingredients.

Wakame

Wakame is often used in soups, such as miso soup, or in sunomono salads. It is usually sold in dried form, and soaked in water before using.

Wakame is usually dried or preserved in salt, making it a staple for the Japanese pantry.

To reconstitute dried wakame: soak a small handful (it expands a ton) in a bowl of room temperature water for 10 minutes. Rinse, chop and serve raw in salads, or serve lightly simmered in soup.

Fresh wakame is available during springtime in Japan. Fresh wakame is more delicate than dried wakame and has fabulous flavored.

Wakame is high in fiber, calcium, iron, and vitamins.

Nori

Nori are thin, dried sheets of seaweed that have a crisp texture.

Japan produces more nori, both in quantity and variety, than any other country in the world. The early Japanese ate nori raw, as early as the 7th century.

Today nori is farmed. Spores are planted in January on nets and placed in bays or lagoons. After harvesting the seaweed in autumn, it is washed in cold water and then spread thinly onto sheets to dry in the sun. It is then toasted and cut into sheets, or seasoned with soy sauce and mirin to make flavored nori.

Because sushi has become so popular in the US, it is becoming easier to find nori in grocery stores, sold in 8” x 7” black or dark green sheets. Better quality nori is thick and has a tight and even texture.

Nori is used for making maki zushi, cut into pieces to eat with onigiri, or crumbled over cold soba noodles, seafood domburi, and other dishes.

Furikake nori has small bits of nori in it, as well as other ingredients such as sesame seeds, and is used as a condiment - often sprinkled over rice.

"Korean-style" nori is a popular snack. Approximately 2"x4", very thin pieces of nori are seasoned with sesame oil and salt, and usually come about 10 to a package. They're an excellent guilt-free replacement for potato chips. (If you have any sort of Asian supermarket near you, they'll probably have it. If you have a Costco membership, you can also check your local Costco for them... they're $6 for a box of 24 packages.)

There's also a Japanese version of these, which are slimmer (1"x3") and a little thicker, and come in a variety of flavors.

Nori is high in protein and dietary fiber.

Part two of our Japanese pantry episode in 3... 2... 1...

(If you missed Part 1, listen here.)

This week, we're talking about all the other essential ingredients that should be in your Japanese pantry.

Because, you know... Japanese food does consist of more than just rice and shoyu.

So, what else is important?

White miso (shiromiso): There are different kinds of miso, but the white (actually a pale yellow-brown) kind is the most versatile.

We've been able to find miso at most chain supermarkets, in the refrigerated "foreign" section (near the wonton wrappers and tofu)

Miso can last up to a year, if stored correctly. Keep refrigerated, and as long as it's not smelling weird or growing stuff, it's probably fine to use.

miso soup

miso black cod

Bonito flakes (katsuo bushi): Not only is this used to make dashi stock, but it's also used as a condiment in so many foods such as tofu, blanched spinach, and so on. (These are the little "dancing" flakes that you see on top of takoyaki or okonomiyaki)

Konbu/kombu seaweed: Essential for making good dashi stock, as are bonito flakes.

Sake: In a pinch a sweet sherry can be substituted, but many Japanese foods include sake as an ingredient.

Mirin: sweet fortified liquor made from rice, used exclusively in cooking.

Rice vinegar: Rice vinegar is mild and sweeter than white wine vinegar. You will also see something called sushi vinegar - this is just rice vinegar with added sugar and seasoning. Making sushi vinegar mix is so easy, and cheaper, that we don't see a need for stocking sushi vinegar. In addition, you might find you prefer a different sugar to vinegar ratio in your seasoned vinegar.

Dried shiitake mushrooms: More intense in flavor than fresh, they are used a lot as a flavoring as well as an ingredient. (Rachael uses these for her vegetarian dashi

Sesame seeds: Both black and white. These are often used toasted and ground up, or whole as a condiment.

Dark sesame oil: This is used for flavoring many dishes, especially chuuka (Japanese Chinese-style) dishes.

Non-Japanese dry or bottled ingredients that are used a lot in Japanese cooking: salt, sugar, Worcestershire sauce, mayonnaise, potato starch flour or cornstarch flour, white wheat flour.

Essential Fresh ingredients include:

Fresh ginger: Powdered ginger cannot be substituted.

Spring onions or green onions and leeks: Leeks are used more than onions, though onions are used in a lot of Japanese Western-style dishes or yohshoku.

White daikon radish: Used cooked as well as raw; in stews, soups, as garnish, etc. Grated daikon radish cuts down on the oiliness of things like tempura and grilled oily fish. In a pinch you can use red radishes instead, especially for salads, grating and so on.

Other ingredients that are good to have if you're doing a lot of Japanese cooking, but not 100% essential:

Tofu and tofu products: aburaage (fried thin tofu), atsuage (tofu blocks that have been deep fried), kohya dofu (frozen and dried tofu, somewhat spongy), okara (by-product of making soymilk) and yuba (very thin sheets of dried tofu).

Wasabi paste or powder

Ground curry powder: Curry flavor is very popular in Japan.

Nori seaweed: The black dried sheets used to wrap sushi rolls, also used shredded as a topping. It's even cooked to a paste to eat with rice.

Wakame seaweed: This is available either preserved in salt, or dried. The dried kind is easier to handle. Used in miso soup, salads, and as sashimi garnish.

Seven-ingredient red pepper powder (called shichimi togarashi or sometimes nanami togarashi): This is a coarsely ground red pepper condiment that's used on a variety of dishes like udon noodles and cold tofu. It has ground up yuzu peel, sesame seeds, etc.

Various dried noodles: soba (buckwheat noodles), somen (thin white wheat noodles), udon, etc.

In which nobody's gotten any sleep, Allison confuses herself about shoyu, and we go off on a ton of (interesting and relevant-ish, we promise!) tangents.

Although this was supposed to be a single episode, we just had so much information we wanted to tell you about what ingredients are important for your basic Japanese pantry, we had to split it in two! Otherwise it would have been an hour-long episode, and as much as we're sure you love listening to us go on (right?)... that's just a bit too long. So instead, you get two episodes for the price of one!

The first thing you should know about the basic important ingredients for Japanese cooking is that... you may not realize it, but you probably already have a lot of them. (And those you don't have usually last a really long time, and aren't all that expensive, either.)

The moral of this episode is: You don’t have to live in Japan to do this at home.

Of course, as with anything else in life, like carpentry or gardening, you could go totally crazy and acquire a wide range of obscure and highly authentic special tools and utensils to start Japanese-style home cooking. But to get started, you really don't need most of them.

For those ingredients you don’t have, you can find them at stores like Whole Foods, Wild Oats, Safeway, Kroger, Albertsons, your local Japanese or Asian market, or online. Keep in mind that just like bread or milk in this country, each of the basic Japanese food ingredients and seasonings comes in many different varieties from many different manufacturers.

And thus we present to you...

The Traditional Flavors of Japanese Cuisine

Besides dashi stock, the basic flavors of traditional Japanese cuisine are sugar, salt, rice vinegar, soy sauce (shoyu!), and miso. While not many sauces use all of these ingredients, many of them use at least three of them.

The order in which these ingredients are used is important. The ingredients whose flavors are most susceptible to being changed by heat are added last — soy sauce and miso. Sugar and salt are added first, and vinegar in between.

The way this is remembered in Japan is with “Sa Shi Su Se So” — the “s” row of the phonetic alphabets in Japanese.

Sa (satoh = sugar)

Shi (shio = salt)

Su (su = vinegar)

Se (shoyu = soy sauce)

So (miso)

Japanese Pantry Ingredients (Part 1):

Due to time constraints (and a few tangents), we could only get to the first couple of essential Japanese pantry ingredients in this episode. But don't you worry... the rest will be in next week's episode! And be sure to stop by next week - we'll have a handy shopping list that you can print out and take with you when you go shopping for these ingredients.

The first essential ingredient is... rice!

(Hey, that's not exotic at all!)

For Japanese cooking, you want to get short-grain rice - either white or brown rice is fine. (It also goes under the name "sushi rice", and is sometimes labeled as medium-grain. Yeah, we know it can be confusing.) Make sure you don't buy jasmine, basmati, or long-grain rice... those are definitely not the right kind!

Any rice labeled "Calrose" or "Kohoku Rose" is the right rice. It's extremely common - we've seen it sold at Costco and in chain supermarkets - so you shouldn't have any problem whatsoever finding it in the US.

(P.S. The internet is your friend. A quick search for "Japanese rice" on Amazon comes up with a bunch of good results.)

(P.P.S. Holy epiphanies, Batman! See below ↓)

The second of the two essential Japanese ingredients we got to today is soy sauce... aka shoyu.

(From here on out, if we're talking about shoyu, now you know! It's what you might already know as soy sauce. Same thing, despite Allison's temporary confusion about it.)

There are a lot of different brands out there, but moral of the story is, in general Japanese shoyu (we think Kikkoman, the brand most commonly found in grocery stores,

Prepare yourself... today, we're completely and totally geeking out. (Especially Rachael.)

Why? Because today's topic is something we get especially excited about - TOFU!

You might think tofu is a silly thing to get excited about, but we'd bet that's because you've never tasted fresh, homemade tofu. (Trust us. It's amazing.)

So what is tofu?

Tofu is bean curd made from dried soybeans, water, and coagulant. (It tastes better than it sounds, promise.)

Tofu is typically identified as silken, medium, medium firm, firm, extra firm, and super firm. In general, Japanese-style tofu is softer than other kinds. The firmer the tofu, the harder the texture, and the more protein it contains by weight.

In Japan, most people don’t usually make their own tofu, however in some markets in Japan you can buy bottles of soy milk with packages of coagulant for making your own tofu, though it is becoming harder to find, especially in the bigger cities.

So how is it made?

Tofu is made by coagulating hot soy milk with mineral salt or acid coagulants. By varying the richness of the soy milk, coagulation method, and pressure used to weight the curds, a tofu maker regulates how much whey (liquid) is left in the tofu. The amount of residual whey determines tofu texture and density.

That all might sound really difficult, but it's not as bad as it sounds.

Rachael even has a post on her blog that teaches you how to make your own tofu!

But you can always try making your own soy milk instead... so delicious.

There are a lot of delicious things you can do with tofu...

Abura-age (fried tofu slices): tofu is sliced and pressed, then carefully deep-fried, first at low then at high temperature, to force it to swell. (simmered in sugar, sake, soy sauce, and dashi then split into pockets and filled with sushi rice to make inarizushi)

Hiya Yakko (Japanese chilled tofu): usually made with silken tofu, but can be made with medium-firm tofu, oboro tofu or zaru tofu. Tofu is chilled and then garnished with toppings, such as scallions, grated fresh ginger, soy sauce, katsuobushi, etc.

Tofu Dengaku (miso-glazed broiled tofu): Tofu is brushed with a soy sauce glaze and lightly broiled, and then brushed with a miso sauce and cooked until bubbling, then served on a skewer.

Agedashi Tofu (deep-fried tofu): Pressed tofu is dredged in potato starch and then fried until lightly crisp and golden, then served with garnishes.

Miso shiru (miso soup): tofu is often included in miso soup

Yu dofu (warm simmered tofu hot pot)

Ma po dofu (spicy tofu with beef and sichuan peppercorn): A Chinese dish, but a Japanese favorite

Ganmodoki (“mock goose,” aka tofu and vegetable fritters): old food, originating sometime around the 1400s. Often served in oden hot pots. Tofu and finely shredded/chopped vegetables mixed with grated yamaimo (or egg white and cornstarch) and fried.

Unagi Modoki (“faux-nagi,” sweet and savory tofu eel): Faux eel fillets made from mashed tofu, salt, sugar, soy sauce, cornstarch, and nori spread of pieces of nori, then fried and brushed with glaze.

Kitsune Udon (Foxy Tofu Noodle Soup): Kitsune means fox in Japanese, and are portrayed as being fond of fried tofu. Kitsune udon is an udon noodle soup served with abura-age tofu in it.

Okara doughnuts: Deep-fried donuts made with okara. Okara replaces some of the flour in a doughnut recipe to make them. They are crisp and pillowy, less sweet than traditional American doughnuts, and FABULOUS!!

Crispy tofu is a hit with the kids.

Tofu doughnuts? Yes, please!

We have a special guest on the show this week! We had an awesome interview with Andrea Nguyen, the very lovable author of the recently-released cookbook, Asian Tofu.

When you're done listening to the podcast, check out this neat video where she demonstrates how to pick out and tell the difference between different types of tofu:

http://youtu.

“There are five attributes to a great chef:

Take your work seriously

Aspire to improve

Maintain cleanliness

Be a better leader than a collaborator

Be passionate about your work.”

-Masuhiro Yamamoto, Japanese Food Critic

Jiro Ono in JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a recently-released documentary about Jiro Ono, an 85-year-old sushi chef in Japan whose restaurant was the first of its kind to earn a 3-Michelin Star rating, and his two sons, who are also sushi chefs.

Rachael and Allison went to see it the day it opened in Los Angeles, and we cannot recommend it enough. Like sushi? Japanese food? Ridiculously delicious-looking shots of food? Then you need to go see this movie. We guarantee you will come out of it both inspired and wanting to go eat sushi.

Want to know when it opens near you? Check out this list of theaters and opening dates, then go buy your tickets!

Jiro Ono and Yoshikazu Ono in JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

We also talk about a sustainable sushi dinner we got to go to last week, put on by Tataki Sushi Bar and Mindshare LA. Suffice to say it was an amazing meal... to read more about it, hop on over to Allison's post about it!