Organic Peanut Butter in Japan

I love peanut butter. And I'm sad that it is not as widely appreciated here in Japan. I mean, yeah, I'd probably think "PB&J sandwiches" or "peanut butter on celery" sounded gross if I had the same archetype for "peanut butter" that most Japanese people do: sickly sweet, peanut-themed sugar spread sold next to bread whiter than an anemic ghost. In the presence of abominations like that, it's no wonder there's no adult demand for nut butters in this country.

6 Varieties of Japanese Green Tea

Last week, we covered four popular kinds of tea in Japan. We ended the article with a note on green tea (緑茶, ryokucha) and its ubiquity in Japan, so much that the general term "tea" is understood in this country to mean "green tea" unless otherwise specified. Here are some of the many varieties of green tea in Japan:

4 Kinds of Tea in Japan

Though not all of these tea varieties originated in Japan, they are all quite popular drinks across the country:

How Japanese People Take Their Tea

Black tea is a popular "Western" drink in Japan, and it is widely available at restaurants, cafes, and in bottled form at supermarkets and in vending machines. Specialty shops offer a wide variety of black teas to the enthusiast, but in casual restaurants and cafes, the popularly available black tea is Earl Grey.

Black tea is usually served in one of four forms in Japan:

Cheap Health Foods, Toiletries and Dietary Supplements in Japan

It's fun to run into new products by browsing at my local imported goods/liquor store, thanks to which I've learned, for example, that Swiss cereals are just unapologetic boxes of candy for pouring milk over. But when I have a specific product from home in mind, like a favorite canned soup, I find that shopping online is a much less hit-and-miss experience than the average Japanese import shop.

And for other preferences, like American toothpaste and deodorant, online retailers are often my only option--it's either that or stock up a couple years' supply during visits home... which I also admittedly do.

In past articles, AccessJ has shared some of our favorite online sources for buying supplements (including whey protein) and comfort foods from home. Between the lot of us I think we've used all the sites listed in those articles, and I personally have been a satisfied customer at many.

But the downfall of most overseas retailers is the exorbitant shipping costs. For four ten dollar bottles of vitamin supplements, I once paid almost as much over again getting them across the Pacific. And generic search terms on Google bring up so many retailers to choose from that it's tiring to sort the trustworthy and competitively priced sites from the chaff.

So when I come across a good one, I want to share it.

Wheat Gluten Free Soy Sauce in Japan

I seem to know a fair number of people who are allergic to gluten or are trying to minimize it in their diets. More and more in Japan, I see stores and products sensitive to consumers with allergies, and gluten awareness seems to be slowly rising as well.

Soy sauce is a major condiment in cooking here, of course, and you might be surprised to learn that even though its primary ingredients are soybean and salt, it also includes roasted grain. That grain is often wheat.

So if you're looking for a gluten-free alternative for your cooking, here's one to consider: The company イチビキ (ichibiki) puts out a product called 小麦を使わない丸大豆しょうゆ (komugi wo tsukawanai marudaizu shouyu, "wheat-free whole soybean soy sauce") that is advertised as being as tasty as the real thing.

Being Cheap in Japan: Chokubai-ten and Farmers Markets

No doubt you have heard about Japan's legendary $100 melons and various other exorbitantly priced foods. "Gift melons" not withstanding, going to the grocery store in Japan may seem a bit expensive considering the size of the portions you get. However, there is a cheap alternative, at least when it comes to select fruits and vegetables: the chokubai-ten and farmer's market.

Japanese Salad Greens: Mizuna

Well, now that you're probably wondering whether Amano Foods sent us a big check to write last week's article (ahaha, that's a good one: making money from blogging), we've got another food tip for you.

Because of the really poor fiber content of Japan's omnipresent white rice and very, very white bread, frequent and delicious green, leafy salads can be a great addition to your diet here. (And they give you a good reason to try out all the Japanese-market-specific salad dressings here.)

The problem I run into, though, is that I'm not familiar with a lot of the greens commonly sold here. Sure, I can recognize cabbage (キャベツ), lettuce (レタス), spinach (ほうれん草)--which when you eat raw will bring bug-eyed stares from Japanese people--and even "Chinese cabbage" (白菜), but there are a lot of other greens on the local supermarket shelf that weren't common for me back home.

Today I'll introduce one that's easy to use, cheap, and grown domestically year-round: Mizuna (水菜).

Delicious Instant Miso Soup

Every once in a while I like to introduce some Japanese product that I've fallen in love with. Miso soup is something I enjoy adding to a meal... but not enough to pull out a pot and make it from scratch every day. And although there are many, many brands that put out single-serving packets of miso soup, it took me a really long time to find one that I thought tasted really good.

Recipe: Healthy Japanese Nimono

I've been trying out some new recipes over the summer and hit on a particularly simple one that's both healthy and cheap to make--helping it fit right in with Dan's current selection of AccessJ posts on saving money in Japan. Better yet, a post like this is an easy place to review some Japanese kitchen words. So, get your pot in one hand and memo pad in the other; we're about to cook up some good old Japanese nimono (煮物)!

All About Japanese Dashi

Dashi (だし汁, dashi-jiru) is a cornerstone of Japanese cooking. It's like "starting with a roux" in a Southern-US cookbook. Dashi appears as an ingredient in dozens of Japanese menu items, from miso soup to broth for udon noodles.

5 Types of Japanese Fast Food Joints

Despite their reputation for being healthy and lean, the Japanese do still enjoy low quality, fast-served food fairly regularly. Here are five examples of popular varieties.

5 Salad Dressings to Try in Japan

Cutting the crap and going straight to the list:

5. Baisen Goma (Roasted Sesame)
by Kewpie, etc.

A number of companies put out creamy roasted sesame dressings in Japan. I like all of them quite a bit, and usually the store's generic brand just as much as the well-known Kewpie brand. This is also one of the few flavors your grocery store is likely to stock in a large container, by which I mean a container that will last for more than just five or six salads. If you are interested in other flavors of dressing in larger containers, quite a variety is available on Amazon.co.jp.

Kanji Mixup? Natto and Tofu

Ever looked closely at the kanji for natto (納豆) and tofu (豆腐)?
Both appropriately use the kanji 豆 (mame), which means "beans." And the other two kanji in question here are 腐, which is used in words like "to spoil" (腐る, kusaru), and 納, which refers to something fitting neatly into a designated space. (Yes, seriously. That's a meaning of 納まる, osamaru).

So, we've got tofu, all packed into its neat little white squares, and natto, rancid and fermenting, but the kanji don't line up. Sure seems like somebody screwed these two words up, doesn't it?

Turns out there's an urban legend in Japan to just that effect:

5 Types of Poisonous Japanese Wild Mushroom

A short while ago I wrote about 5 delicious edible mushrooms in Japan.

Predictably, not all mushrooms are quite so delicious, or even safe to eat. Here are 5 baddies.

Hard or Soft Tofu: Momen and Kinu

At your local supermarket in Japan, tofu is divided up into two main categories, called もめん (momen) and きぬ (kinu). In Western grocery stores, the same distinction is made as "hard" tofu and "soft" tofu, although the actual difference goes a little beyond simple firmness.

Today we'll learn a bit about what sets もめん and きぬ apart!

Reading Japanese Nutritional Information

Bought a food or drink? Want to know the fat content or something?

5 Types of Edible Japanese Mushroom

There are some seriously suspect mushrooms in Japan. Some delicious ones, too. Here are some varieties you'll find in most supermarkets/on many menus. Most typically appear in nabe or fried rice dishes, or unwelcomely raw and work enkais.

Q&A: Ban-gohan or Yoru-gohan?

Today we explore a deep mystery of the Japanese language. What is the correct name for dinner?!
(...er, that'd be "supper" for many of our non-American readers.)

yesfit99 writes:

Is the correct Japanese word for the evening meal 晩ご飯 (ban gohan) or 夜ご飯 (yoru gohan)?

Ever since I was a kid, I always said ban gohan, but recently it seems like everyone on TV is calling it yoru gohan. At first I just thought it was stupid idols who don't know proper Japanese, but then I heard some pretty big-name celebrities saying yoru gohan, too.

Choking on mochi? Grab a vacuum.

Every year, a few Japanese people die over New Year celebrations by choking on mochi they swallowed whole. (For real. Here's a news report about 7 mochi choking deaths over January 1st to January 3rd last year.)