Guys, I’m so behind on nomination posts, it’s not even funny. But I haven’t forgotten them. No siree!!! In fact here’s proof!!! I’m going to do one right now. Well sort of. This isn’t really a traditional tag, it’s more of an answer post.
A while ago Fuelled by Smiling spontaneously created this tag and I think today is the perfect day to answer it, in part because I haven’t seen it go around that much and in part because it’s lunch time and I’m really hungry.
I’ve mentioned a few times that this blog was initially supposed to be dedicated to anime food and recipes, but my deep inherent laziness told me it would be way too complicated and as such I stopped that before I ever started. Talk about efficient!!! This said, anime food still remains near and dear to me and I do try to figure out new recipes whenever I have the chance.
Oh wait – you may be wondering why I suddenly started on this subject. No I didn’t hit my head again. Smiling’s original post (read it, it’s super fun) was similarly hunger motivated and we were asked to share our favourite snack or anime food.
I have to admit, I’m not sure what my favourite snack is. It really changes all the time. Lately I’ve gone on this super odd trend of homemade vanilla and wasabi ice cream. I’m telling you, my brain is fine…well it’s as good as it has ever been at least…
Instead, let me tell you about my two favourite anime foods (of the moment). Ok that also changes a lot.
The spark that started this blog was the first season of Bungou Stray Dogs and the description of Ochazuke (or simple chazuke for those casual folks). I love rice and it has been a staple in my diet since I was a child, but I also have a very pronounced fondness for tea. All teas in fact. That’s a lie, I don’t really like herbal teas. Real teas of any roast (colour) are always a big win with me. I’m also Eastern European so bland cuisine is kinda my thing… Long story short (too late), the idea of white rice in a tea broth sounded like the best thing in the world (and a potentially very effective hangover cure).
I have tried quite a few variations. In fact, here are some recipes if you want to try it at home:
- https://www.justonecookbook.com/ochazuke/
- https://manga.tokyo/columns/anime-recipes/anime-recipes-vol-2/
- http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-feature/2016/07/13-1/feature-cooking-with-anime-ochazuke-from-bungou-stray-dogs
I won’t lie, this dish can turn out rather tasteless if you’re used to particularly savoury food. If you are used to BIG flavour you may be a bit let down (or you’ll need to adapt the recipes to your preferences) but it’s a comforting dish that easy on the stomach and very filling.
I’ve adapted this recipe to my personal tastes beyond recognition by using very black, very strong tasting imperial Russian tea (with a dash of sugar), and putting just about anything on top from simple sesame seeds, to roasted nuts and sautéed veggies, eggs or even tempura. It’s very tasty you guys. It may no longer qualify as Ochazuke… The more traditional green tea version is delicious too if you ask me. I what to make a sweet version with macha and fruits on top. I guess this would almost be like a rice pudding?
As scrumptious as Ochazuke is though, my go to anime comfort food is still the classic omurice. A true omurice is a truly impressive feat and one I have yet to master:
I just can’t get the omelet consistency right so that is overflows when cut into every time. Instead I generally just make a quick vegetable fried rice (extra sticky) and I wrap a thin traditional omelet around it. A bit like a burrito. I do make little ketchup drawing on top though. I mean, there’s no point without it…
I also have a weird, completely non-canon version of this. Remember when I mentioned I enjoyed bland foods (I also like very spicy foods so go figure). I managed to come up with a way to reduce the savouriness as much as possible for reasons. I doubt any of you would ever want to do this but if you were thinking to yourselves, omurice sounds good but there’s just too much flavour! I have the perfect solution for you.
First don’t stir fry the rice. Instead use sticky white rice (Calrose is easy to find in Canada) and mix in a few veggies. Like peas or onions. Basically, as you would for making onigiri (I forgot onigiri, I love those). Then make a thin egg white omelet and wrap that around your rice. Put a few seaweed cutouts on top – little hearts work well. Tada – all of the work at a fraction of the taste!
If I do another one of those I can detail my deep love of and numerous attempts at okonomiyaki.
Are you hungry now? If you are, you should share your favourite anime food with us. In fact, if it’s vegetarian I’ll try to make it! Serious question, if I attempted filming my super dubious cooking experiments, would you be interested?
Favorite food? Boiled crawfish (with red potatoes, of course!). Favorite Asian food? Whatever my wife cooks at any given time.
Crawfish is crab?
No, dear one, crawfish is crawfish! https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1163/2672/products/Red-Crayfish_grande.jpg?v%3D1466292946&imgrefurl=https://aquaticarts.com/products/neon-red-crayfish&h=450&w=600&tbnid=ROHVoR9NFkGZTM:&q=crawfish&tbnh=150&tbnw=200&usg=AI4_-kRI_N8uceUVMiQHk3mx0eg-C_JSdA&vet=12ahUKEwjmirTx5d3dAhWE8YMKHXoADBgQ_B0wIHoECAkQCQ..i&docid=JrcNgoZsq50HxM&itg=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjmirTx5d3dAhWE8YMKHXoADBgQ_B0wIHoECAkQCQ
No, crawfish is crawfish! http://theexaminer.com/sites/default/files/blog/DSC_5210_0.JPG
“Crawfish” is also known as crayfish and craw daddies and fresh water lobster. They look like lobster but are much smaller.
https://www.teachertube.com/video/i-am-a-crayfish-94082
I really learned a lot aout seafood
The link to Smile’s post is…dead?
That said, I have barely any cooking skills but I do know a bunch of Japanese foods. Maybe try tamagoyaki, wakame (that’s a type of seaweed I’ve found in commercial bentos before) or vegetarian yakisoba.
Wait really?
I need to fix that link. It worked when i scheduled the post…at least I think it did…
I like looking at different culinary creations, but my taste palate and my interest in actually cooking is so very small! My idea of cooking is tossing chicken strips in the toaster oven or pulling out a Lunchable.
thank you very much for the ochazuke recipes you provided, I really want to try it some time soon 😀
Vanilla and Wasabi ice cream sounds like something I must try.
Not a fan of eggs as long the texture remains (too much of it omelettes and it looks like even more of it in the Jap version of omurice), so that’s not for me.
And I couldn’t possibly eat that bear. I’d feel like monster.
I know right! The cute food trend has weird implications.
Do any of your dubious cooking experiments turn out purple like some of the disastrous cooking in anime? Because I would actually like to see that in real life. I will admit, the only time I watched cooking videos is when I’m specifically trying to cook one thing and then I’ll watch the video just before I try it. It isn’t really something I watch for fun.
I have once burn the bottom of a clear broth and it ended up blueish grey…Skillz!
I am impressed right now.
The only ways to turn your food purple requires one of the following.
Blackberries added (since they’re purple), or a couple other kinds like blueberries and raspberries cooked till they fall apart. That’s safe, but only tastes good in desserts.
Some people just add concord grape jelly to a dish, which works if it needs sweetness.
The chemical method is to add iodine to starch, which makes it poisonous. Don’t do that one to food.
There’s purple potatoes from Peru, which grow that way. They’re pretty hard so take longer to boil, and don’t taste very good and cost more. I don’t recommend them. High end grocery stores sell them in bags.
You could also just use food coloring, which is safe. If you really wanted to do that, as a joke, that would be the safest way and you wouldn’t end up sick from it.
“I just can’t get the omelet consistency right so that is overflows when cut into every time. Instead I generally just make a quick vegetable fried rice (extra sticky) and I wrap a thin traditional omelet around it.”
Can confirm your suggestion of Calrose! The couple times I tried to make omurice it really helped the disk hang together.
It’s a pretty decent alternative to japanese short grain rice and easy to find
Of course you should film it!! I’ll watch it. I love to watch people cook, especially when it is non-pros. So, do it!! As for my anime cooking experience; well, it goes as far as me thinking that one day I will make onigiri and it looks so delicious with all the ramen noodles and how hard can it be. Then I stand in the Asian Isle and feel all lost. So yeah, that’s pretty much it.
You know, I use to pretend I was hosting a very cheesy cooking show whenever I was making diner for my sweetheart when we first moved in together for laughs…
The food was so so but it was tons of fun.
See, you are born to host your own cooking show on YT! 😎
Destiny!
For some reason I always read posts that feature food either just before I am going to sleep, or just after I have eaten dinner. Needless to say they always make me hungry 😂😂 This time though I’m seeing this in the afternoon for a change. I totally don’t know how to cook really, but I do like food ( a lot, even though you wouldn’t guess that by looking at me lol 😂). So the answer your question, yes I would be interested to see your super dubious cooking experiments! 😂😂
Always the optimist!
Well…I try to be anyway 😅
Calrose rice is grown 30 miles from where I’m sitting, in Marysville and Yuba City (like Budapest, opposite sides of the Yuba and Feather rivers) in California. It is the best selling rice in Japan, and feeds much of their population. In exchange, they send us Hondas and Toyotas. Its ideal for making sticky rice.
Publishing more recipes would be a good thing. They don’t have to be just anime themed recipes, of course. I’ve got some recipes posted on mine over the last couple weeks. As the weather cools I can get out of the grilling stuff and into the roasts, soups, breads and rolls. The hearty foods which give you the strength to get through a winter. And all the ingredients are available now because of harvest.
I like my niche!
Does this mean you are going to stick to drinking games for anime or are you going to start including recipes and snacks to go with them?
Ummm you’re making it sound suspuciously like work again…..
You mean sharing recipes isn’t as fun as coming up with drinking games, or do you mean that coming up with drinking games is like work? Please clarify, if that isn’t too much like work. ;P
Creating and testing recepies is a huge amount of work…i mean just finding cocktail suggestions is already a bit much for me
Ah. Sorry. I didn’t realize. Learning to cook can be very challenging, and one needs a lot of experience to be comfortable with creating dishes and modifying them. You have to cook after work anyway, right?
I love to cook but i don’t have that much time for it. I will often grab whatever the office provides for dinner
Bummer. Its tough when you can’t do what you love. I’ve had jobs that kept me too busy to cook well except my off days. Things are better now. My cookbook collection is pretty good, and RecipeSource and FoodNetwork offer a LOT of choices, with multiple examples to compare. And I’ve got fresh rosemary outside when I roast beef or chicken. A shame you don’t own a crockpot. Prep ingredients the night before, put them in the pot at breakfast, turn on low, come home to fresh stewed something (or the fire engines). Its amazing with tough meats like pork chops or chicken thighs. Tenderizes them well. Reminds me I need carrots. Wanna do stew when it rains next week.
I’m a vegetarian which is another reason anime recipes are at times challenging. The good news is i like my job more than I like cooking so it works out!
Vegetarian. That’s not common in anime. Anime girls don’t want to be skinny, so they don’t live on vegetarian diets. I have not idea how ACTUAL Japanese women feel about that subject. Anime isn’t reality. Its carefully marketed to its audiences, and many shows air after school, during snack time.
Ever notice that eggs get into most actual foods served in Japan? Ramen with egg dropped in. Veggie and rice bento, hard boiled egg. Hot food and dip in egg. Turns up all the time. Isabella Bird wrote about that in 1880(ish) when she visited there.
You might check foods from Ethiopia. They’re SPICY, but quite a few of them are vegetarians. I knew several a few years ago. Lots of different ingredients, but substitutes are possible.
I grew up in Africa. I love those spices
Really? Where?
Mostly Madagascar but also togo and Benin a bit in Djibouti. Algeria and Tunesia when i was younger.
You travelled a lot. Was your dad in embassy staff?
Not exactly. We were refugees
Bummer. And you ended up in Quebec, which lets you speak French at least. I presume you spoke it in Madagascar and Algeria.
Yup and my dad didn’t speak English at all.
English is a VERY hard language to learn. Everybody says so. I have to agree. I filled my brain with it, and there isn’t much left over for Japanese or French or Spanish, all of which I’ve tried and failed to learn.
Adapting to the cold must have been major culture shock.
Not so much. We originally come from very northern climate. Even with years in the warmth I never got use to it. It was a relief to get back to more reasonable temperatures
Your descriptions just makes me more confused. Are you ethnic Russian, and somehow ended up in Africa as refugees, or are you African yet somehow lived in the big north where its cold, like Russia, and then ended up back in Africa? Apologies if this is invasive.
I was born in Russia hence my name but left during the communist era when emigration was still illegal and requested refugee status. Which was turned down or considered by the US, CA and AU for many many years. During which time we country hoped every few months through europe and ended up in Africa. I ended up in Canada when I got to Uni.
Wow. And quite a few countries are pretty open to refugees, though probably only with the right skills or bragging rights. So much has changed since 1989 when the USSR fell. I’m glad you landed on your feet.
Gosh dang, unfortunate causes, but you travelled a lot and I can’t help but think that’s a really interesting story.
Also: Tarascon Tomato Soup. I’ll post that recipe on my blog soon. It can be done vegetarian.
Done. Check my blog.
Well,I guess I’m cooking some stuff later.
My country doesn’t normally have tea in any capacity except in Chinese places, so herbal’s all I got.
Omurice has so much variety. In my old Omurice post, I made the simple one with the egg covering the top of the rice.
As for the whole “anime recipes thing”, the biggest downer for me on me trying to do posts like that us the severe lack of Japanese ingredients or substitutes in my area. If it IS, it tends to be rather expensive.
Luckily Canada has a pretty high Asian population and we have a lot of great supermarkets for specialty ingredients
I’m Asian too, but the Philippines is the grab bag of SEA. Too many cultures in one place, lol, so no consistent markets besides our local ones.
Wait, you’re Filipino? My wife is from Los Banos, and we were just there last year. Whereabouts are you?
Well, I’m not from Los Banos that’s for sure, lol. Not really comfortable sharing where I live exactly, but cool to see other filipinos or their loved ones on this site.
Hey, with 7000+ islands, there are plenty of places to be. Take care!
You too, buddy
“the biggest downer for me on me trying to do posts like that us the severe lack of Japanese ingredients or substitutes in my area”
Amazon might be your friend. I’ve found several ingredients there that I couldn’t find locally. Sometimes at a pretty good price, too! They have some great organic miso paste…
Shipping is a huge detriment to my wallet though as a student, but I’ll try!