Hello Washoku Lovers! I’m so happy to join the Washoku Lovers Blog, and have an opportunity to introduce Japanese food and culture from Tokyo.
First of all, I’ll tell you about the national flowers of Japan. It’s cherry blossom and chrysanthemums. April is cherry blossom viewing season. Yoshino cherry blossoms already fell in Tokyo, but we can enjoy double cherry blossoms nowadays. These two types of cherry blossom flowers bloom at different times, so we can enjoy hanami (flower viewing) for a little bit longer.
Yoshino cherry at night
Double cherry blossoms
During cherry blossom season, I try to enjoy it at my table, too. Recently I cooked a special meal at home – this is not a typical Japanese home meal!
I drew cherry blossoms on Japanese paper, then covered the food with it, making a obento style covering. This is not something you would find at a restaurant, and especially not at home but I like to be creative and try different things. It brings a bit of excitement to the meal, don’t you think?
Open!
For this dinner, I made tofu, ginger pork, fried fish balls, snap peas with a sesame dressing, grilled Spanish mackeral, stuffed shiitake mushrooms, a boiled egg. and tsukudani. Tsukudani is the word we use for any meat or seafood that’s simmered in mirin and soy sauce!
Tai no sakuramushi. (Steamed red snapper with cherry leaf.)
Gochisousamadeshita!
WashokuLovers
