Tutorial: Tazukuri
Ah, tazukuri. I’ve loved you for a long time, though sadly, I only recently learned your name. Which is shocking, considering how many times I’ve eaten you and thought to myself, “why don’t I try making this at home? I’d eat it ALL THE TIME!”
I finally learned it (well, obviously), and indeed it’s ridiculously simple. While not exactly health food, it’s healthier than a lot of snacks. If you, like me, are the least bit lactose-intolerant, it’s also a really good source of calcium—one of the reasons it’s so popular in Japan. (If you’re my friend Melanie, I do apologize, and you may not want to read this post. I’ll understand entirely if you skip it. 
)
Follow the jump for more.
Year of the Bento: Bento No. 4: Chicken Korma Bento
Chicken in a korma, I know it’s serious.
Seriously delicious, that is. Follow the jump for more, and a gallery.
Year of the Bento: Bento No. 3: Omuraisu (Japanese Omelette Rice)
Omuraisu is kind of like Japan’s equivalent of mac and cheese. Short for “omelette rice”1 , it’s essentially a good way to use leftover ingredients but suit them to Japanese tastes.2
Follow the jump for more, and one more photo (not really a whole gallery this time).
- because the Japanese love their portmanteaux almost as much as I do [↩]
- For those interested, this idea of taking Western-style dishes but bending them to Japanese flavor profiles is not uncommon. It’s a subgenre of Japanese cuisine called youshoku. If you’re familiar with kareraisu (curry rice), that’s part of the youshoku family, too. A good indicator is whether or not the name is just a Japanese pronunciation of borrowed English words—but that’s not always the case. However, if sighting such a word makes you suspicious, you may want to investigate further to see if you’re right. [↩]
Janaki
