Easy Ways to Make Local Rice Bowls in North, South, East, and West Japan

Unveiling the culinary delights of Japan's four directions, a journey through delightful Donburi dishes. First up, a bowl from the South, Chicken Nanban bowl, a Donburi dish featuring a Miyazaki specialty from the northern part of Japan. Have you heard of Chicken Nanban? It's a popular chicken dish originating in Miyazaki prefecture and enjoyed all over Japan. In Japan, foods marinated in a sweet and sour sauce, sometimes with a touch of chili pepper, are called Nanbanzuke and this chicken dish is no exception. The sweet and sour sauce is a key component and the final touch of tartar sauce is equally important. First, let's prepare the onion for the tartar sauce. Onion can be quite pungent so sprinkle them with salt. Let them sit for 2 to 3 minutes and then soak them in water for about 10 minutes. When introducing Japanese tartar sauce, I often get comments saying that's not tartar sauce, it's egg sauce but this is the Japanese version of tartar sauce so please bear with me. This is an optional step but today I'm going to add a unique Japanese twist. You can also chop up dill pickles, a common pickle in western countries. I'm going to finely chop two types of Japanese pickles, tsukemono, and add them to the tartar sauce. They are both cucumber pickles but with different flavors. The purple one has a shiso leaf flavor and the other one has a simple soy sauce base. We'll use half of a hard-boiled egg. Remove the yolk from the egg. And finely chop the hard part. The finer, the better. Today we are using chicken thighs. They are a bit frozen. Remove the skin and let them sit for a while to thaw completely. Of course, you can leave the chicken skin on if you prefer. Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces and pat them dry with paper towels. Once you've soaked the onion in water for 10 minutes, drain it throughly to remove all excess moisture. Use paper towels to prevent the tartar sauce from becoming watery. Combine the drained onion with the finely chopped boiled egg. Mash the yolk as well. Add the pickles, mayonnaise, ketchup, and sugar to the onion mixture. Mix well until the Japanese-style tartar sauce is complete. The cucumber pickle adds a great crunch and flavor, making this a special sauce. Before cooking the chicken, let's prepare the sauce first. Combine sugar, soy sauce, and rice vinegar in a bowl. And mix well. Set aside for later use. Once the chicken has thawed completely, season it with salt and pepper. And coat it with potato starch. The traditional chicken nanban is said to be coated in flour and egg, but this time I'm going to use only potato starch for simplicity. You can also dust the chicken with flour, dip it in beaten egg, and then fry it if you prefer. Fry the chicken in oil. You can use less oil if you like. Be careful of oil splatter this time too. It might be because there was still some water left from when the chicken was frozen. Fry for about 3 minutes per side. Once the chicken is cooked through and crispy, remove it from the oil. Clean the fry pan and add the sauce you made earlier. Bring it to a light simmer. Add the chicken to the pan and coat it well with the sauce. Simmer until the sauce has reduced and coat the chicken thoroughly. Place rice in a dumpling bowl and top with shredded cabbage if desired. Place the chicken on top. And drizzle with as much tartar sauce as you like. Pour the remaining sauce from the fry pan over the chicken. The combination of sweet and sour sauce and tartar sauce is amazing. I'm sure you'll love this addictive combination. Next up, let's check out a bowl from the West. Kinugasa bowl, a Kyoto specialty. This dumpling bowl is named after Mount Kinugasa located in Kyoto. This dish is often found in Kyoto and its neighboring areas like Osaka. Being meatless, it's a healthier option and much easier to prepare. Yet, it's just as delicious as any meat-based dumpling. They recommended vegetables to pair with this dish is green onions. If you don't have it, onions can also work. In a fry pan, we'll prepare the sauce. Combine water, dashi powder, sake, soy sauce, mirin, and sugar in the pan. And mix lightly. Add the green onions and fried tofu immediately to the pan. As the mixture simmers, the green onion will soften and the fried tofu will absorb the flavorful broth. This process is similar to making oyakodon, chicken and egg bowl, but the amount of liquid is slightly more than in oyakodon. This allows the fried tofu to soak up the flavor more thoroughly. While the mixture is simmering, crack an egg into a bowl and whisk it into beaten eggs. Once the sauce has reduced significantly, add the beaten eggs. Cover the pan and simmer for 1 to 2 minutes. Cook the eggs to your desired doneness. Place rice in a bowl and use a large spatula to transfer the cooked ingredient on top. If there is any remaining sauce in the fry pan, drizzle it over the ingredients. The fried tofu is so juicy, it's like meat. Heat a side of shibazuke, cucumber pickles, to add a refreshing crunch. Next up, let's take a look at a bowl from the east. Saitama miso buta don, miso glazed pork bowl. Saitama is a prefecture located in the eastern part of Japan, just north of Tokyo. This pork-based donburi is said to be a specialty of Chichibu, a region in Saitama. I recommend using thinly sliced pork loin. To prevent curling while cooking, make small slits along the edges. In a bowl, prepare the miso glaze. Combine miso paste, sugar, mirin, sake, soy sauce, grated garlic, and grated ginger. You can add more ginger and garlic to your liking since miso can be hard to dissolve. I recommend mixing it well beforehand like this. Marinate the pork in the glaze. If there is a bit too much glaze, you can reserve some instead of using it all. I used it all though. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20 to 30 minutes. While the pork is marinating, let's prepare the caramelized onions. Cut the onions into wedges and fry them. These onions will add a nice accent and make the bowl even more delicious. Heat some oil in a fry pan and fry the onion until they soften. If you prefer a more crunchy texture, you can take the onions off the heat, stir, season with salt and pepper, and set aside. Just before cooking the pork, place the caramelized onion on top of the rice in the bowl. Clean the fry pan, add a bit of oil, and cook the pork that you took out of the refrigerator. I think it's better to shake off as much of the miso sauce from the pork as possible before cooking to reduce the risk of burning the pan. Set aside the remaining sauce in the bowl for now and cook it down slightly in the pan separately. When the uncooked side is lightly cooked like this, turn it over. The other side will cook quickly when the other side is nicely charred. Take it out. The pork is already flavorful on its own, but you can drizzle some of the reduced miso sauce over it if you like. Top with green onion for color. Pickled red ginger pairs very well with this dish. Finally, let's explore a bowl from Hokkaido, the northernmost prefecture of Japan. Hokkaido ganmodoki donburi, fried tofu patty donburi. Hokkaido is the top producer of soybeans in Japan, so I'll introduce a donburi dish featuring ganmodoki, Japanese fried tofu patties, as the main ingredient. These ganmodoki are delicious in bowls, but they can also be enjoyed as appetizers or snacks, so please try making them once. First, let's serve frozen edamame beans naturally. Here is hijiki, a seaweed often eaten in Japan. Suck it in water to rehydrate it. This is Japanese yam, yamaimo. Adding it to the ganmodoki mixture makes it fluffy and delicious. We'll use a generous amount of tofu. Wrap it in paper towels. Place a weight on top and press out excess moisture from the tofu. I added a little more hijiki seaweed because I thought it could be more. Peel and grate the yams. If you don't have yam, you can increase the amount of potato starch later. Next, finely chop the carrots. Edamame, hijiki, and carrots can be substituted with other ingredients. You could also add green beans or other beans. Hijiki is not essential, so feel free to vary the ingredients according to your preference. Finally, squeeze out any remaining moisture from the tofu by hand on top of the paper towels. Drain the hijiki well before mixing it in. Add the carrots and edamame beans to the bowl. Gently mix in the yam. While Chinese yam, nagaimo, is more commonly used for ganmodoki, using Japanese yam, yamaimo, results in a much fluffier texture. Add potato starch to the mixture. As mentioned earlier, if you don't have yam, add a bit more potato starch to bind the mixture. You can also use rice flour instead of potato starch. In addition to potato starch, add mirin and salt and mix well. The batter has minimal seasoning, so we'll flavor it separately later. Shape the batter into round patties and fry them in oil. Fry each side for about 2 minutes over medium heat. Fry until the surface is browned and crispy. Prepare the sauce for simmering the ganmodoki. Add mentsuyu, a Japanese noodle soup base, to a pot. Add sugar and water and mix well. If you don't have mentsuyu, combine equal parts soy sauce and mirin. Add a pinch of dashi powder and mix well. Bring the sauce to a light simmer and add the fried ganmodoki. Turn the ganmodoki over halfway through cooking. Simmer for 2 to 3 minutes until the flavors have infused. And then transfer the ganmodoki to a donburi bowl filled with rice. Pour the sauce over the ganmodoki. Top with edamame beans and you are done. This dish is like a savory tart burger with a delightful aroma. Which Japanese bowl from the east, west, north, or south did you find the most appealing? I encourage you to try bowl dishes from all over Japan. Thank you so much for watching our video. Please subscribe to our channel. If you are already a subscriber and would like to support our channel, please join our membership. Membership feedback will be reflected in content creation. See you in the next video!