Japanese_Food

Japanese Food________________________________________ It is noticeable that Japan has always been the most popular travel destination for Hong Kong people. What’s more, the influence of Japanese culture can be seen at almost every corner in the city, from Japanese items sold at convenience stores or shopping malls, to well-known Japanese pop stars. However, in my opinion, Japanese foods and produce have gained most enormous popularity and become a common feature of people’s everyday life in Hong Kong. For three consecutive years now, Hong Kong has been the largest export partner for Japanese agricultural and fisheries products. It’s not difficult for us to find Japanese restaurant in Hong Kong. This article would like to introduce my two favorite Japanese foods, which are Kare Raisu (Japanese Curry Rice) and Shabu-shabu (Japanese Hotpot). Kare Raisu History Curry was introduced to Japan via the British in the second half of the nineteenth century, when Japan opened its doors to foreigners and their goods during the Meiji Period. As a result, Japanese curry inherited most of its characteristics from Anglo curry and developed into Kare Raisu. Kare Raisu is curried and consists of thick stew of potatoes, carrots, onions, and your meat of choice, served over short-grain, white rice, and topped with pickles. The dish became popular in Japanese homes after an instant curry mix of spices and flour was developed in powder form in the early twentieth century, and its popularity took off after World War II, when the curry roux in blocks was introduced. Ingredients One of the reasons I love to eat Kare Raisu is because of the ingredient. A variety of meat and vegetables can used for making Japanese curry. The base ingredients include onions, carrots and potatoes, which contain many different vitamins and balance our diets. Meats used may be beef, pork, or chicken. Not only it is cooked with meat and served with rice, it is also popular to go with fried items, for instances, Tonkatsu or ebi. Magically, all these ingredients can match with the curry source perfectly. Other ingredients include wheat flour, vegetable oil, and spices like cumin, coriander, and turmeric. Seasonings like onion powder, honey or milk powder may also be added. That’s why the Japanese curry is sweeter and milder (not too spicy) than Indian curries and used to be one of my favorite dishes growing up. Preparation Another reason is that I consider Japanese curry as a modern age curry, Kare Raisu is so easy to prepare and effortlessly delicious. I used to learn how to prepare a Kare Raisu only from the introduction on the package of the curry powder. It was successful and made me very happy about that. First, the onions are chopped and stir-fried for a while in a pan. Then garlic, carrot, potato and meat are added. The above mixture is cooked till the meat attains a brownish texture. Then water is added and cooked till it boils. Once everything is cooked you turn off the heat and add the blocks of curry roux. In about five minutes, you will have a pot-full of dense sauce coating your vegetables and meat. The curry is then generously ladled onto white, sticky rice. Actually, you can serve garnished with vegetables pickled in vinegar such as fukujinzuke (radish, eggplant, lotus root and cucumber) or rakkyo (pickled shallots) on top. However, I wanted to make in my easy way.