Category Archives: The Gaijin’s Garden

Do you live in Japan, or just wish you did? Here you’ll find monthly updates on my attempts to grow veggies in Japan!

School Lunch in Okinawa Japan for July 2-6

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Monday July 2

Milk, barley rice, mozuku stuffed fried egg, daikon bushii, orange

Monday’s meal was on the far side of tasty, but for me it wasn’t much of a surprise since daikon was featured so heavily in the bushii.  Stewed daikon (giant white radish) isn’t something you’ll find a whole lot in the West, but its got such a unique mild flavor to it.  The bushii is essentially a light stew of pork, daikon, and other root vegetables that combine with hints of soy and other Japanese flavors for a hearty and delicious meal.  Along side was a bit of fried egg with mozuku (a local seaweed) for extra protein and a bit of orange. Not a completely Japanese meal, but rather close.  4 Bowls.

Tuesday July 3

Milk, whole wheat bread, ‘cup’ baked fish, goya salad, tougan soup, apple jam

This meal was one of those odd mixes of East and West that hit far from any kind of fusion.  The fish was topped with cheese and was actually quite moist.  I used it to make a sandwich, though the flavors didn’t mesh all that well with the whole wheat.  The goya salad was bitter as to be expected, but would have been fine except that the apple jam provided for the bread was sweet and made the acidity of and bitterness of the salad and its dressing all the more apparent.  About half the elementary school kids around me kept trying to get rid of more of the goya salad by putting it on a friends’ plate.  The soup which had winter melon in it was tasty.  Overall confused.  3 Bowls.

Wednesday July 4

Milk, barley rice, chikina chanpuru, meat stuffed inari, root vegetable soup

If the stuffed inari looks familiar to you, it is because we had it just two weeks ago.  This time it tasted a little better to me, less of the normal sweetness of the bean curd pocket, to go against the savory meat inside.  The chanpuru was made with chikina (mustard greens), tofu, and other vegetables and was very good.  The soup was mostly daikon and burdock root.  Tasty, rather traditional.  5 Bowls.

Thursday July 5

Milk, 3 item rice, fish somen soup, tanabata jelly

This meal was served as a ‘don,’ a rice bowl topped with fried egg, chicken, and spinach.   Along side was a soup with noodles made from fish as well as other vegetables.  The desert was a special type of jelly for this weekend’s Tanabata star festival.  I’ll be posting more on it tomorrow!  A simple traditional meal.  5 Bowls.

Friday July 6

Milk, barley rice, papaya irichi, fish tempura, a-sa soup, shikuwasa jelly

Today’s meal was in honor of a group of students visiting from Nigata Prefecture.  In order to give them a sense of Okinawa, the meal was designed to show unique Okinawan foods.  The papaya irichi was a stir fry with shaved green (unripe) papaya, canned tuna, and other vegetables.  The fish was a local variety called manbika- in tempura.  The soup was a usual dashi broth with a-sa a light sea plant and tofu.  Finally desert was a jelly made from shikuwasa, an Okinawan lime that is a little sour but very tasty.  Very Okinawan, and Japanese in style, but not quite all Japan.  4 Bowls.

Which is your favorite School Lunch for July 2-6?

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School Lunch in Japan for June 26-29

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Tuesday June 26

Milk, barley rice, goya chanpuru, fried fish, clear soup

Thanks to last week’s Dragon Boat Festival, there was no school for my junior highs on Monday.  We started off the shortened week with an Okinawan meal of fried banana fish and goya chanpuru.  The fish was covered in a light tempura batter and fried, followed up with a clear soup of komatsuna.

Wednesday June 27

Milk, barley rice, shrimp and vegetable dumplings, vegetable and oyster stir fry, harusame soup

This meal had a strong Chinese influence.  The dumplings were mostly processed shrimp meat with a thin green container.  The soup had cabbage and mushrooms with harusame (clear bean noodles).  The stir fry was mostly vegetables with chicken and an oyster sauce based seasoning.

Thursday June 28

Milk, millet rice, stuffed whole fish, cabbage in sesame dressing, murakumo soup, soft black beans

Thursday’s meal was another very traditional Japanese meal.  The baked fish are stuffed with eggs and are meant to be eaten whole.  Beside them, was a salad of cabbage, cucumber, carrots and other vegetables in a sesame sauce.  The soup was an egg drop with seaweed and tofu.  In Japanese ‘kumo’ means cloud, so the name of the soup comes from the cloudy image of the eggs in the soup.  Finally, the meal was topped off with dried beans.  The beans had been cooked then dried, so it was lucky I had some left over milk to wash them down with.

Friday June 29

Milk, summer vegetable spaghetti, unohana croquet, and one prune.

The only thing that keeps this meal from getting a straight one bowl of rice is the croquet.  Unohana (aka okara) is the residue leftover after making tofu.  The bean curds were mixed with a bit of seaweed, then breaded and fried.  Likely there was some potato mixed in as well.  The spaghetti was one of the better ones I’ve seen done for school lunch in Japan.  Instead of being dry, there was an ample amount of sauce served separately from the noodles.  Included was eggplant, onion, peppers, burdock, carrots, and other vegetables.

Which school lunch seems most 'Japanese'?

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The Gaijin’s Garden – A Spring Start

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Spring announced its presence with a wrathful storm across Japan the other day, but that just means the oceans are beginning to warm.   With the change in temperatures will come the heat and humidity of summer.  Last year I battled the heat with a green curtain.  My housing was on the first floor and I had great big sliding doors that faced the sun.  By planting summer vine vegetables, namely goya, I was able to reduce the temp inside the house and also have a supply of fresh food.

I’m in a new place this year, and on the second floor, but I’ve still managed to stake out a bit of land for a garden.  Its stuck behind a parking spot, and isn’t the best soil, but I from now on, I’ll be following the progress of several summer vegetables that are (relatively) easy to manage.

Don’t worry!  Even if you’re stuck in Tokyo, or on the 100th floor, you can still take advantage of the stress relief and enjoyment of growing some of your own food.  I’m still preparing my own space, and I’ll have posts on that soon, but for today, here’s a look at the ghost of gardens past.

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School Lunch February 23-29

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Thursday February 23

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Milk, millet rice, sautéed burdock and carrots, mayo baked salmon, ‘clear’ soup

This one is definitely Japanese (ok so maybe not mayo… but then I’ve only ever seen mayo salmon in Japan).  I’ve been wondering what that root dish was for forever… I now know what my second favorite vegetable is… burdock root.  SO good.

Friday February 24

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Milk, white rice, Japanese style chicken curry (carrots, potatoes, chicken, onion, and green pepper), pickled vegetables (cucumber and daikon)

Curry is always a hit with Japanese school kids.  It’s not originally from Japan, but this version is well adapted.  The change-up here is with the protein.  In Okinawa it’s usually spam or fried pork cutlet.  Today we got chicken.  The plates were definitely clean…

Monday February 27

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Milk, barley rice, fried fish (gurukun), papaya stir fry, mozuku soup

This one is close to 100% Japanese.  I’m not sure about papaya though.  Its common in Okinawa, but how about up north?  I don’t normally associate papaya with Japanese food, but they do some wonderful things with it.  In this case, green papaya is used like a vegetable, in a stir fry (irichi-).

Tuesday February 28

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Milk, Okinawan Soba (fish paste ‘logs’, pork belly, onions, noodles, broth), pickled vegetables, orange slice

This one again would be 100% Japanese, but it’s just a bit on the Okinawan side.  Soba is one of those dishes that always gets a bit of a regional flair.  In Okinawa, soba is generally eaten with a hot broth, pork and fish paste.  Its delicious!  Many Okinawans add hot (pepper infused) oil and other spices as well. At least one teacher always seems to smuggle some in.

This meal was requested by one of the island’s third years.  For them there’s only 10 days left until graduation!

Wednesday February 29

Happy Urudoshi! うるう年 is leap year in Japanese.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Milk, ‘Chinese bowl’ (ie a don: quail eggs, shrimp, assorted veggies over white rice), chingensai soup, strawberries

The Chinese bowl had all kinds of good stuff in it all cooked in a semi sweet sauce.  The chingensai is a plant very similar to bokchoy .  It has wide green leaves and a thick base, but isn’t as long as its cousin.  It’s a very easy plant to grow during the winter months and works great in soup.  I grow some in my own garden.