brown sugar bread in plastic:
ポタト コロケ Potato Croquette:
白花まめ汁 White Bean Soup (surprisingly lacking white beans! lots of potatoes and carrots, though!):
春豆と ほれんしょと しいたけと にんじんと 牛肉 サラダ glass noodle, spinach, shiitake mushroom, carrot, and beef salad:
Showing posts with label Japanese school lunch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Japanese school lunch. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Japanese School Lunch PICTURES
Finally, some pictures of my much-talked-about obsession:
brown sugar bread in plastic:
ポタト コロケ Potato Croquette:
白花まめ汁 White Bean Soup (surprisingly lacking white beans! lots of potatoes and carrots, though!):
春豆と ほれんしょと しいたけと にんじんと 牛肉 サラダ glass noodle, spinach, shiitake mushroom, carrot, and beef salad:
brown sugar bread in plastic:
ポタト コロケ Potato Croquette:
白花まめ汁 White Bean Soup (surprisingly lacking white beans! lots of potatoes and carrots, though!):
春豆と ほれんしょと しいたけと にんじんと 牛肉 サラダ glass noodle, spinach, shiitake mushroom, carrot, and beef salad:
Saturday, February 21, 2009
School Lunch for US
This article in the New York Times screams resoundingly truthful in my ears, especially after experiencing the wonderfully orchestrated, wholesome meal that is the Japanese school lunch. All my suspicions about the supreme processed ickiness of US school lunch is confirmed and condoned by US policy. It's disgusting.
All of my public schools at least had a cafeteria, but even my affluent private high school served rather unhealthy items for lunch and snacks. Fruits and vegetables were definitely lacking in any quantity, much less the 50% of the tray they fill in many of my Japanese school lunches.
I remember that when I was in school, lunch would be the only meal some children would eat, because their parents were derelict or poor or just plain unresponsible. Some of the kids were on the free lunch or subsidized lunch program and they had to make the meal last them until the next day at school breakfast. I was such a snob that I usually didn't eat all my lunch, deeming it fatty, nutritionless, and disgusting as early as middle school.
Eventually, my middle school did create a Salad Bar Island as an alternative to the hot lunch. This was pretty popular, but lacked balance as it did not contain starch or meat! I usually brought home lunch, only occassionally getting the school lunch when I knew I would be able to palate the menu of the day.
The US should look to the Japanese system of lunch distribution if they need a new structure. Under this system, not every school has to be outfitted with a cafeteria. The food will be prepared in a central cafeteria and delivered to the schools at lunchtime. I do wonder, though, if American students will have the discipline not to pillage the best parts of the lunch, hogging and squirreling and perhaps even deliberately spilling the food for the sole purpose of making a mess and causing trouble.
By the way, yesterday's lunch was curried chow mein, chicken peroshki (a russian bao or meat-filled bun is the best way I can desribe it), salad with creamy dressing, peaches, and pineapple, and a small packet of salted almonds. The kids went nuts for the almonds!
I also really enjoyed Thursday's lunch: there was a cooked green bean salad with sesame dressing, loaded with sesame seeds, fried rice, and white fish katsu that was cooked in what I can best describe as oyakodon style, fried with a clear brown gravy, plenty of onions and big chunks of mushroom, and egg. There was also half a banana and milk, of course.
I dread ever becoming a teacher in an American school and eating the school lunch.
All of my public schools at least had a cafeteria, but even my affluent private high school served rather unhealthy items for lunch and snacks. Fruits and vegetables were definitely lacking in any quantity, much less the 50% of the tray they fill in many of my Japanese school lunches.
I remember that when I was in school, lunch would be the only meal some children would eat, because their parents were derelict or poor or just plain unresponsible. Some of the kids were on the free lunch or subsidized lunch program and they had to make the meal last them until the next day at school breakfast. I was such a snob that I usually didn't eat all my lunch, deeming it fatty, nutritionless, and disgusting as early as middle school.
Eventually, my middle school did create a Salad Bar Island as an alternative to the hot lunch. This was pretty popular, but lacked balance as it did not contain starch or meat! I usually brought home lunch, only occassionally getting the school lunch when I knew I would be able to palate the menu of the day.
The US should look to the Japanese system of lunch distribution if they need a new structure. Under this system, not every school has to be outfitted with a cafeteria. The food will be prepared in a central cafeteria and delivered to the schools at lunchtime. I do wonder, though, if American students will have the discipline not to pillage the best parts of the lunch, hogging and squirreling and perhaps even deliberately spilling the food for the sole purpose of making a mess and causing trouble.
By the way, yesterday's lunch was curried chow mein, chicken peroshki (a russian bao or meat-filled bun is the best way I can desribe it), salad with creamy dressing, peaches, and pineapple, and a small packet of salted almonds. The kids went nuts for the almonds!
I also really enjoyed Thursday's lunch: there was a cooked green bean salad with sesame dressing, loaded with sesame seeds, fried rice, and white fish katsu that was cooked in what I can best describe as oyakodon style, fried with a clear brown gravy, plenty of onions and big chunks of mushroom, and egg. There was also half a banana and milk, of course.
I dread ever becoming a teacher in an American school and eating the school lunch.
Friday, February 6, 2009
"Chowderlike" Miso Soup: How do they do it?
Today's school lunch was outstanding! Every time I look down at my neatly-arranged tray, I think to myself, "how balanced!": about half vegetables, half carbohydrates, meat mostly as a flavoring device, AND it looks tasty! I remember school lunches in Hawaii being mystery meat sloppy joe, a cottony roll, canned fruit cocktail, and forlorn frozen peas. The cafeteria workers basically just opened a bunch of cans and emptied them onto our trays. It was pretty unedible and unhealthy most of the time. Today in Okinawa:
half a fresh mikan, or tangerine/mandarin/clementine/something like that
Heaping pile of Mugi-Gohan, or chewy, white, short-grain rice with a touch of wheat in it. Japanese rice is always exceptional, no matter where I get it. Even in Hawaii, rice is nowhere near as good.
Salad consisting of soft, melding flavors of daikon, carrot, and other unidentified things. Also a bit of fish, in very small, flaked form. It didn't taste fishy at all. How did they do that? I love love love the way they do vegetables.
A small, golden-brown fried "cake" made from fishcake (kamaboko), infused with plenty of green onions, sweet yellow onions, and corn. Very tasty and flavorful. Something to savor.
A rich, rich bowl of miso soup with big pieces of shiitake mushroom and that clear white stuff that's kind of crunchy but looks like a noodle and is big. Maybe it's some kind of fungus? It reminds me of jellyfish you eat in Chinese restaurants, but I don't think it's jellyfish.
Anyway, this miso soup was superb. When they were spooning it out, I thought it was chowder, it was so incredibly rich and creamy, yet I know it doesn't have an ounce of dairy in it. How do they make it so breathtakingly delightful?
Believe you me, I have had my share of miso soup, but I've never really taken to it. Especially the way they do it in America, what with the dense cloud of gritty miso that always settles to the bottom and the lack of anything substantial, it feels like I'm drinking salty water with grit in it. In Japanese (in Okinawa) restaurants, they always at least add a few chunks of star-shaped kamaboko, and some substantial knots of seaweed. Still, most of the time, I don't like it because it feels empty. I like soups of substance. And I never thought I'd say that the best 味噌 soup I've ever had in my life was in a school lunch.
The secret of the chowder-like miso soup is still a mystery that I would love to solve.
half a fresh mikan, or tangerine/mandarin/clementine/something like that
Heaping pile of Mugi-Gohan, or chewy, white, short-grain rice with a touch of wheat in it. Japanese rice is always exceptional, no matter where I get it. Even in Hawaii, rice is nowhere near as good.
Salad consisting of soft, melding flavors of daikon, carrot, and other unidentified things. Also a bit of fish, in very small, flaked form. It didn't taste fishy at all. How did they do that? I love love love the way they do vegetables.
A small, golden-brown fried "cake" made from fishcake (kamaboko), infused with plenty of green onions, sweet yellow onions, and corn. Very tasty and flavorful. Something to savor.
A rich, rich bowl of miso soup with big pieces of shiitake mushroom and that clear white stuff that's kind of crunchy but looks like a noodle and is big. Maybe it's some kind of fungus? It reminds me of jellyfish you eat in Chinese restaurants, but I don't think it's jellyfish.
Anyway, this miso soup was superb. When they were spooning it out, I thought it was chowder, it was so incredibly rich and creamy, yet I know it doesn't have an ounce of dairy in it. How do they make it so breathtakingly delightful?
Believe you me, I have had my share of miso soup, but I've never really taken to it. Especially the way they do it in America, what with the dense cloud of gritty miso that always settles to the bottom and the lack of anything substantial, it feels like I'm drinking salty water with grit in it. In Japanese (in Okinawa) restaurants, they always at least add a few chunks of star-shaped kamaboko, and some substantial knots of seaweed. Still, most of the time, I don't like it because it feels empty. I like soups of substance. And I never thought I'd say that the best 味噌 soup I've ever had in my life was in a school lunch.
The secret of the chowder-like miso soup is still a mystery that I would love to solve.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
I can't stop myself
I know I shouldn't post when I have no pictures and when I can't even make what I ate, but I am so continually impressed by Okinawan school lunches that I have to remember them somehow.
Today, we had a marvelous soup. It was a thick, creamy, rich pumpkin chowder made from kabocha, with lots of little pieces of kabocha and potato swimming inside. Very thick and rich. It also had yummy bits of chicken breast, parsley, onion, and other unidentified tasty things swimming in it. The jumpy yellow-orange color was also quite striking.
The other course was just as good! It was a kind of frittatta (spelling?), made with sweet onion, bacon, spinach-like veggies in small amounts, and red beans (sounds weird, i know, but it was really good!). It was covered in something like katsu/barbeque sauce. Delicious.
I ate the above in a sandwich with the seasame-covered dark-what-sweet hamburger-style bun that was already cut down the middle for me. The bread was surprisingly wholesome for Japanese bread.
Salad was marinated won bok, sweet and slightly salty, with grated carrots and some kind of sausage (peppercini-like?), cut into pieces. I love how the flavors of it all melded together beautifully. I need to learn to marinate vegetables.
And, of course, a pint of milk.
I almost forgot to mention! Some very kind friends got me a birthday cake today, made from a fruit (I don't remember the name) all the way from Peru! My goodness! It was delicious. It was a 2-layer cake, with maple whipped cream frosting, and a dark, sweet cream layer made from the fruit, which is apparently like a persimmon but with the texture of an avocado. It was quite delicious.
Today, we had a marvelous soup. It was a thick, creamy, rich pumpkin chowder made from kabocha, with lots of little pieces of kabocha and potato swimming inside. Very thick and rich. It also had yummy bits of chicken breast, parsley, onion, and other unidentified tasty things swimming in it. The jumpy yellow-orange color was also quite striking.
The other course was just as good! It was a kind of frittatta (spelling?), made with sweet onion, bacon, spinach-like veggies in small amounts, and red beans (sounds weird, i know, but it was really good!). It was covered in something like katsu/barbeque sauce. Delicious.
I ate the above in a sandwich with the seasame-covered dark-what-sweet hamburger-style bun that was already cut down the middle for me. The bread was surprisingly wholesome for Japanese bread.
Salad was marinated won bok, sweet and slightly salty, with grated carrots and some kind of sausage (peppercini-like?), cut into pieces. I love how the flavors of it all melded together beautifully. I need to learn to marinate vegetables.
And, of course, a pint of milk.
I almost forgot to mention! Some very kind friends got me a birthday cake today, made from a fruit (I don't remember the name) all the way from Peru! My goodness! It was delicious. It was a 2-layer cake, with maple whipped cream frosting, and a dark, sweet cream layer made from the fruit, which is apparently like a persimmon but with the texture of an avocado. It was quite delicious.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Mediocre food day
I should really just dedicate a blog to Japanese school lunch. It's so good. Today I went to 水安島 to teach. Their school lunch is great because it's HOT! It's made on the island, and for only 5 students and a dozen teachers. Superb.
Crispy panko-battered salmon fillet
Bacon Potato Chowder soup, thin for chowder but I don't know how else to describe it. Potato, onion, pig/bacon pieces, cabbage, corn. I want to make chowder.
molasses bread (not as good as it sounds. NO Japanese bread is as good as it sounds, I find. It's always fluffy, light, airy, slightly yeasty, and has little to no flavor nor substance.)
cooked spinach (or maybe ong choy?) and corn salad, nice and salty
milk
I have to proclaim it and resolve it here and now. After Lunar New Year and after my birthday (they just happen to be on the same day) NO MORE GLUTTONY. Meaning, my goal is to lose my excess weight by March. Proclaiming it publicly will hopefully motivate me. I need to a) cook less frequently; b) cook less (eg cook portions sized for 2 meals, not ten); c) cook healthier; d) not eat brownies for breakfast, snack. lunch, snack, dinner, and snack; e) eat in moderation. Lofty goals.
Crispy panko-battered salmon fillet
Bacon Potato Chowder soup, thin for chowder but I don't know how else to describe it. Potato, onion, pig/bacon pieces, cabbage, corn. I want to make chowder.
molasses bread (not as good as it sounds. NO Japanese bread is as good as it sounds, I find. It's always fluffy, light, airy, slightly yeasty, and has little to no flavor nor substance.)
cooked spinach (or maybe ong choy?) and corn salad, nice and salty
milk
I have to proclaim it and resolve it here and now. After Lunar New Year and after my birthday (they just happen to be on the same day) NO MORE GLUTTONY. Meaning, my goal is to lose my excess weight by March. Proclaiming it publicly will hopefully motivate me. I need to a) cook less frequently; b) cook less (eg cook portions sized for 2 meals, not ten); c) cook healthier; d) not eat brownies for breakfast, snack. lunch, snack, dinner, and snack; e) eat in moderation. Lofty goals.
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