Student Life in Japan - Cooking

[Gardenhead]

I'm currently a student studying in Japan looking for a cheap alternative to eating at the local shokudo or conbini. As far as cooking skills, I'd say I'm a beginner. Because there is no oven in the dormitory I'm staying at, I can't resort to the frozen pizza solution I often relied on back at home. Instead, we have electric range tops with a grill, a toaster oven and I have access to a rice cooker. I'd like to know if anyone has any recipes, or know of a place where I may find some recipes, or simply some advice for a foreigner with cooking and grocery stores in Japan. Thanks for your time!

 

[jamosaka]

How cheap do you need to go? Have you considered the all Bento diet?
Hmm, most of my student staples from back home are too expensive here,
mainly because of bread and cheese prices, even rice isn't great value here.
That rules out cheese on toast, egg fried rice and such.

How about saury? They cost about 80 yen, you can grill them in about 5 minutes, tasty and healthy!

Of course you have to dig the stomach out with your finger...

How's this for cheap and easy?

Chuck some mince in a pan with some oil.
Leave it for a few minutes.
Bung in some sliced cucumber.
Add some basil if you can afford it.
After 5 minutes add a bit of soy sauce and some cornflour.
Then mix in some rice (er, which you've pre-cooked in the rice maker)
And stir in some cheese.

Voila!

Er actually I'm not sure how cheap this is, leave out the cheese and the basil and it should be okay.

 

[Chipi]

oh..sounds so familiar, I had the same problem last summer. I didn't have kettles, frying pans etc. so I couldn't cook even if I wanted to..and I was quite lost in the supermarket, trying to understand what's in every box
If I wanted to eat at home, I just bought bento, cup noodles, bread, cheese, micro pizza, salads etc..

Now, back in Finland, I'm trying to learn how to cook Japanese food. Some simple stuff to begin with. My favourite lunch to take to work is Onigiri (and something to go with it). Roll some cooked rice and for example tuna inside some Nori seaweed..I use some salt on my hands first, to make the rice to a nice ball/triangle, and then wrap the seaweed around.

 

[misa.j]

The apartment I lived with my husband in Japan had only one electric stove, but we had a fish roaster and a microwave oven which could be used as a toaster oven.

We had homemade pizza with french bread, pan-fried thinly sliced meat with vegetables, roasted fish, a lot of pasta. We had sushi very often.
You can check out some of the recipes I had posted in the food thread if you would like to.
Easy recipes for everybody.

 

[bezz]

How about saury? They cost about 80 yen, you can grill them in about 5 minutes, tasty and healthy!

related post

 

[bezz]

Have you considered the all Bento diet?

related thread
more

 

[craftsman]

Have you considered the all Bento diet?

Stay away from bento boxes!

I became really ill in my first year in Japan as - like you - I couldn't cook to save my life. I had some 'proper' meals sometimes but I had an awful lot of convenience store food - mostly bento boxes. After a while my vision went blurry and I steadily felt more and more sick. At the time it was a mystery to me - I thought maybe an allergy to Japan.

Now years later my wife got a job making bento boxes for the local supermarket. And it all now makes sense. Absolutely nothing in the bento box was fresh. It may look nice and even taste nice but that is because of the amazing amount of preservatives, chemicals and piles and piles of sugar and salt. Ever notice you get kind of thirsty after eating a bento?

So even if you can't cook well yet - whatever you can create in a pan on your cooker will be far more nutritious than anything from the convenience store! Keep trying.

 

[Foxtrot Uniform]

One of my staples meals is the sandwhich which can be made with relatively cheap ingredients found at any cheap grocery store or supermarket.

8 slice bread pack - 150 yen (makes 4 sandwhiches) - 37.5 yps
head of lettuce - 170 yen (makes 12 sandwhiches) - 14.167 yps
tomatoes - 400 yen (makes 12 sandwhiches) - 33.3 yps
onions - 100 yen (makes 16 sandwhiches) - 6.25 yps
mayonaise - 200 yen (makes 12 sandwhiches) - 16.67 yps
mustard - 150 yen (makes 12 sandwhiches) - 12.5 yps

*yps is yen per sandwhich*

Of course, the figures depend on how much of each ingredient you use in your sandwhich but these are the approximate figures I get for the sandwhiches I make.

Now the main ingredient is meat for me, and depending on what you like or what you can ingest, prices differ greatly. Of course, one can add or drop ingredients depending on their tastes or whats on sale that day, and when done randomly, can add some variety. Without the main ingredient, a sandwhich made from the above ingredients costs about 120 yen. I prefer about 50-100 grams of meat in one sandwhich.

spam (340g) - 530 yen (4s - 85g/s) - 132 yps
corn beef (340g) - 350 yen (4s - 85g/s) - 87.5 yps
generic ham (340g) - 720 yen (4s - 85g/s) - 180 yps
tuna - ???

One spam sandwhich would cost 252 yen, corn beef 208 yen, generic ham 300 yen. I cannot eat corn beef anymore and it tastes like cheap dog food (don't ask). Usually 2 sandwhiches are pretty filling when consumes with cheap tea, but thats because I have a small Japanese stomach (though it changes to American as soon as I'm near free food). So two sandwhiches, one meal, is pretty cheap compared to the small shokudo portions and much cheaper than trying to get full at restaurants etc.

 

[yukio_michael]

The apartment I lived with my husband in Japan had only one electric stove, but we had a fish roaster and a microwave oven which could be used as a toaster oven.

This is quite normal for a Japanese home, isnt it? I don't think that there are a lot of people cooking with an actual oven, mostly gas or electric range top, am I correct?

***

To the original poster, you have everything you need to cook for yourself each day rather cheaply.

Here's one day's meals... I'm not keeping these traditional by any means, just giving you an example...

Breakfast (asa gohan)
Miso + wakame (green seaweed) + chopped green onion
Cereal or Toast w/ ham & cheese
juice & or coffee

Lunch (ohiru gohan)
Grilled chicken + vegetables (mixed vegetables can be bought from 99en store, and heat very well in the microwave... you can get fresher vegetables that aren't frozen too--- I like green & red pepers...)

To cook the chicken, you need some breadcrumbs, a lemon or lemon juice (the lemon juice comes in a bottle that looks like a lemon!), and some aluminum foil.

Wash off the chicken in cold water, and then put it in a bowl that you've filled with the bread crumbs... on top of this, put the lemon/lemon juice, not too much... Sometimes i slice some tomatos and put those on top as well.

Next wrap this in the aluminum foil and put it inside the grill--- Make sure there is water inside the grill underneath this will allow the food to cook more eavenly... There's only one range setting, ON, so this part is pretty simple... it should cook probably 5-10 minutes on each side... Chicken is cooked when you pierce it and the juice comes out clear... Bigger pieces of chicken take longer but you just keep an eye on it...

Here is a picture of my results, (with tasty tater tots, an American staple, also bought at 99en store, and I believe called french potato)...

If you like, you can also serve w/ rice + furikake, which is topping for rice that comes in different varieties like dried bonito flakes, seaweed, sesame seed, soy, etc...

Dinner (ban gohan)
Japanese style curry + rice... You can use some of the rice you made earlier for lunch--- If you plan at least one meal around rice each day you'll get in the habit of eating things in addition to the rice, which is very filling.

This is the brand of curry that I use, and is pretty popular in Japan...



You can broil beef tips or lamb, I'm not really an expert at cooking meat without actual fire, so this part has been the most challenging and fun part for me to find ways to cook... You don't have an oven-persay so oven broiling is out but here's how you can pan broil...

1. Heat a heavy bottomed pan (cast iron is ideal) until it's hot enough to evaporate a drop of water instantly.
2. Sprinkle a little salt over the surface of the pan. This helps make a tasty crust on the meat and doesn't add a significant amount of salt to the food. (You can omit this step and still get good results).
3. The lamb should sizzle as soon as it is placed into the pan. The meat should be browned well on one side and then turned to brown the other side.
4. When turning the meat, a tongs or spatula should be used to avoid puncturing the meat, allowing juices to escape.
5. If the meat requires longer cooking at this point, reduce the heat somewhat to prevent burning. If the meat will not be served immediately, cover the pan to hold in moisture.

I like to cook whatever meat I use with onions, until the onions are brownish in colour. You can add potatos & carrots to the curry as well, so it makes a nice well-rounded meal.

To cook the potatos you need to start with cold water first, always cook potatos w/ cold water, not warm, as it cooks the potatos more eavenly... You want to put your potatos in a sauce pan and then fill that with water until its just over top of the potatos... Bring the water to a boil and then turn the heat down and cook for another 20 minutes or so... I prefer to cook the potatos w/ the skins on... the skin is actually quite healthy for you.

Good luck & I hope you enjoy cooking for yourself--- I think those are the best meals of all.

Edit: Oh yes, I'd like to add that all of the ingrediants here, including the chicken, etcetera can be purchased at a 99en shop. The only exception being the meat that you might use for the curry which you'd have to go to Jusco or a grocery store for....

Oh... one last thing... if you want to see what happens if you leave tater tots in the range too long (they cook very quickly, in under five minutes.... maybe two minutes per side)... Have a look here:

 

[Ewok85]

I'm no student and my food budget is pretty liberal (home cooked meals can get pricey when you're using imported cuts of meat, wine and a nice dessert), but I can skimp when I need to.

A nice big pot of curry can last days and days. Stick in okura (slice in half), eggplant (nasu - sliced), red/green peppers, anything that catches your eye.

Lately my favorite lazy dish is to fill a bowl with water, add some dashi and consume, chuck in sliced carrot and cabbage, and if theres any pork or bacon around, chuck that in too. Cook it until the carrots are soft and you have a simple soup.

 

[yukio_michael]

Lately my favorite lazy dish is to fill a bowl with water, add some dashi and consume, chuck in sliced carrot and cabbage, and if theres any pork or bacon around, chuck that in too. Cook it until the carrots are soft and you have a simple soup.

Do you use the powderd dashi stock? That sounds like a good recipie, I'll have to try that--- especially with the pork.

Funny, when I read this paragraph first I read consume as a verb, not the soup stock.

 

[Ewok85]

Do you use the powderd dashi stock? That sounds like a good recipie, I'll have to try that--- especially with the pork.

Funny, when I read this paragraph first I read consume as a verb, not the soup stock.

Yeah, my Girlfriend is lazy so its powdered dashi stock

Haha, I thought about whether to use the romanised consume or the English consumme. Guess I caught at least one person unaware!

I'll try and think up other things. I picked up 2 boneless chicken legs (labled as thighs) last night for 350 yen, so about 175/per person. Add a little garlic (cheap), some wholegrain mustard (cheap), some honey, soy, let it sit in a bowl in the fridge for half an hour then pan fry and serve with your choice of sides (I like salad).