Experience Japan Festival 2016

All year I've been looking forward to this Japanese festival and I'm delighted to be able to say this year it was even bigger and better. Although the Irish weather can be unpredictable in April, the sun was shining the whole day and the temperature was higher than an average spring day. The first Japanese street food/ Japanese festival food I tried was curry udon garnished with bonito flakes, it was delicious and I got it from the WACAFE

There were more food stalls this year due to the growing demand for this Japanese festival every year. One of my favourite food stalls was the takoyaki and okonomiyaki. 

These are typical Japanese street foods/Japanese festival foods and always taste amazing when freshly made and served like this. 

The queue for this stall was particularly long even at the end of the day.  

I was delighted to see a Japanese gift shop called "Cactus Dublin" at the festival with a fantastic selection of Japanese gifts and they also stocked my cookbook "Japanese Food Made Easy".

There was plenty of opportunity to absorb Japanese culture with displays of marital arts such as kendo and karate. 

It was great to see Irish children embracing marital arts and tentatively listening to their Sensei!  

Asia Market Dublin had a stall again this year with a fantastic selection of Japanese ingredients and their stock of my cookbook sold out! 

 

I really enjoyed my talk on "Japan through the Eyes of Fiona Uyema" in the Cabinet Kitchen. There were so many questions at the end of the session and thanks to everyone who came up to say hello. It always motivates me to hear that people are following my journey and enjoying my recipes and adventures through my blog and online.

I had an information stall in the Cowshed on Japanese food & culture. My little boy came along to help me! 

I bumped into these two beautiful ladies again this year. Every year they wear costumes to the festival, I love them :)

Although the cherry blossom trees are not in full bloom across Ireland yet we found a few that had blossomed.

Notes:

If you 're interested in attending Japanese festivals around Europe you should also look at Hyper Japan in the UK and Japan Day in Germany. I hope to attend these wonderful festivals one day too. 

I want to say a special thanks to Natalia from Smiles!Photography for allowing me to use her photos for this blog post. Her photos are much nicer than mine!!

To see more about Experience Japan festival go to www.experiencejapan.ie

Top 5 Japanese Street Foods You Have to Try

On my return trip to Japan last November my family and I got to experience authentic Japanese street food, here's our top 5 Japanese street foods. You can see our return trip which was broadcast on NHK TV if you click on this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BYgg28I9fQ

1. Salted Sweet Potato

There was an elerly Japanese lady at this stall making salted sweet potato sticks, she was so delighted to meet a foreigner that she wouldn't let me pay. My 4 year old and I loved these!!

2. Taiyaki

These fish shaped pastries are freshly made with various fillings such as sweet bean, custard and chocolate. They are absolutely delicious. I was so excited when I stumbled across this local taiyaki stall and got the chance to taste one after 10 years.

Here is a photo of the lady putting the different fillings in the taiyaki while they're baking in the fish shaped moulds.

3. Dango

These are sticky rice balls made from mochi (rice flour). 

4. Yakisoba

See my yakisoba recipe on the link below:

http://fionasjapanesecooking.blogspot.ie/2013/09/vegetarian-yakisoba-recipe.html

5. Okonomiyaki

I didn't come across okonomiyaki on my last visit to Japan, but I have to share it here as one of the top 5 streets foods from Japan. Here's the link to my okonomiyaki recipe. I've really simplified it so it'll work for you at home.

http://fionasjapanesecooking.blogspot.ie/2014/03/okonomiyaki-japanese-pancake.html

Now, decide which Japanese street food you'd like to try ccoking at home! Fiona :)

Yakisoba with Mixed Vegetables Recipe

 

I lived in a small village along the western coast of Japan called Nishiyama.  During the summer months the locals always invited me to their hiking tours which were followed by a barbecue on the beach.  This was the first time I ate yakisoba at a Japanese barbecue and it was amazing.  Yakisoba is also a  popular street food at Japanese summer festivals.  Outside of Japan, yakisoba is one of the most popular dishes on menus in Japanese restaurants.  It's easy to make at home so please give it a try.  This is one of my 2 year old's favourite dishes. 

This is a vegetarian dish but if you want to follow the traditional recipe include pork shoulder or pork belly (chicken and prawn go really well too). 

Ingredients:

2 garlic cloves (peeled and finely diced ) 

1 onion (peeled and finely diced)

1 carrrot (peeled and cut julienne style)

1 handful of beansprouts 

1 handful of savoy cabbage (finely chopped)

1 pack of egg noodles or ramen noodles

Homemade yakisoba sauce:
4 tbsp tomato ketchup
4 tbsp water
2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp sake or red wine
1 tbsp soya sauce

1 tsp sugar
Freshly ground black pepper (to season)

Vegetable oil (for frying)

To garnish (optional)

Nori (finely grated)

Beni shogu (red pickled ginger)

Serves 2 

Instructions:

1. To make the homemade yakisoba sauce put all the ingredients for sauce in a saucepan and simmer for about 10 minutes until the sauce thickens to the same consistency as tomato ketchup and then set aside.
2. Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan/ wok and fry the onion until soft. Then add the garlic.
3. Toss in the carrots and fry for a minute or so before adding the cabbage and beansprouts.
4.  Place the noodles in a bowl of boiling water and untangle with chopsticks or a fork without breaking. Drain and add to the stir fry. 
5. Pour the sauce over the stir fry and mix well.
6. Serve on a plate and top with nori and red pickled ginger.

Tips

- Stir fry the vegetables to your liking but try not to overcrowd the pan.

Japanese street food recipe - chicken karaage

There are lots of festivals (known as matsuri) celebrated in Japan throughout the year and at each festival you'll find popular Japanese street food including takoyaki (grilled octopus balls), yakisoba (fried noodles), okonomiyaki (Japanese style pancake), ikayaki (fried squid) and chicken karaage (Japanese fried chicken). At this time of year, the Obon festival takes place which is celebrated to honor the spirits of the dead. Here is my simple chicken karaage recipe to celebrate the Obon festival.

You can use chicken breast or chicken leg and thigh for this recipe. I prefer using chicken leg and thigh as it's much cheaper and tastier. Ask your butcher to remove the skin and bone and then just cut into bite size pieces.

Ingredients:
2 chicken leg and thigh or 2 chicken breast (boneless, skinless and cut into bite size pieces)
2 tbsp sake
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp grated ginger
Potato starch or cornflour (to coat the chicken pieces)
Vegetable oil (for frying)
Black or white sesame seeds (optional to decorate)
Few wedges of lemon (optional to garnish)

Instructions:

1. Mix the sake, soy sauce and grated ginger in a medium size bowl. 
2. Put the chicken pieces in the marinade and stir to make sure the chicken pieces are evenly covered in the marinade. 
3. Leave in the fridge for about 20 minutes or a few hours (the longer the chicken is left in the marinade the tastier and more tender the meat will be). 
4. Drain the marinade from the chicken pieces and pat with kitchen towel to remove the excess marinade.
5. Place the potato starch or corn flour on a large plate and generously coat the chicken pieces.
6. Heat the oil to 170 degrees Celsius and fry for about 5 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and a nice golden brown colour. 
7. Arrange the chicken pieces on kitchen towel to absorb excess oil.
8. Serve with lemon wedges, wasabi mayo or sesame seeds.

TIPS:
- If you like you can leave the skin on the chicken pieces.
- To check the oil temp drop a bit of potato starch into the saucepan if it drops to the bottom and immediately rises then the oil is hot enough. If you notice that the chicken pieces are starting to brown too fast then the oil temp is probably too hot.
- Do not overcrowd the saucepan or the temp of the oil will reduce.

OTHER INFO:

- Check to see what Japanese festivals are in your area every year to get a chance to try Japanese street food. There is a Hanami festival in Dublin every year with a great selection of Japanese street food. Click here for more details.