and soy sauce, and the parched beans are used to make kinako flour, a very tasty topping for mochi. Good-quality cooking oil is also extracted from soybeans.
dango だんご 団子 ball (of food). The flours of rice, wheat, buckwheat, and millet are all used to make balls that are steamed or boiled and then served with some topping or dipped in soy sauce and grilled. Pork, beef, chicken, and fish (especially sardine) balls may be deep-fried instead of steamed or boiled and are often an ingredient of o-den.
dashi だし 出し、 出汁 stock. The best Japanese stock is made with freshly shaved katsuobushi and konbu. The first brew (ichiban dashi) is used for suimono, then the same ingredients can be reused to make “second-run” stock (niban dashi), which is perfectly satisfactory for miso soup, noodle broth, and many other uses. The little dried anchovies called niboshi are also used for making stock, but first their heads should be removed and discarded.
dashijiru 出し汁 See dashi.
datemaki だてまき 伊達巻き rolled omelet. Eggs, shredded whitefish, dashi, mirin, and sugar are used to make an omelet, which is rolled by means of the special bamboo mat called a makisu and then cut into thick slices. It is especially used at New Year as part of o-sechi ryōri.
datsu だつ 駄津 needlefish Strongylura anastomella. Similar in appearance to sayori, this sea fish reaches 1 m in length and is mostly used for making kamaboko.
demae でまえ 出前 home delivery of food ordered by telephone. A popular practice in Japan.
denbu でんぶ 田麩 flesh of whitefish and shrimp that has been boiled, shredded, parched, seasoned, and colored red. It is used as an ingredient of norimaki and as a topping for chirashizushi. It is also called oboro.
dengaku でんがく 田楽 preparation in which food such as eggplant, taro, konnyaku, and tofu are dressed with a sweetened miso topping and grilled on skewers. Fish dengaku is called gyoden.
denpun でんぷん 澱粉 starch (C6H10O5). It is used in the making of kamaboko and in some preparations of mizuame, nori, and saké.
dobin どびん 土瓶 teapot. Made of pottery or china, it has a semicircular bamboo handle over the top.
dobinmushi どびんむし 土瓶蒸し delicate clear soup made in an individual miniature dobin. It is a famous autumn speciality of Kyoto and usually contains matsutake, chicken, mitsuba, and ginnan. The juice of sudachi is squeezed into the dashi, which is drunk from little cups. The other ingredients are fished out with chopsticks and eaten. One of the great delicacies of Japan.
doburoku どぶろく 濁醪、 濁酒 See Appendix 7.
dojō どじょう 泥鰌 loach Misgurnus anguillicaudatus. A freshwater fish that used to proliferate in rice paddies before the extensive use of agricultural chemicals. Since the whole fish is eaten, it is a good source of calcium. It is usually eaten as an accompaniment to shōchū or saké. Not highly rated.
donabe どなべ 土鍋 earthenware pot, shaped like a large bowl, much used for nabemono. Usually its lid has a hole in it and it is glazed inside but not out. For cooking, it is placed directly on top of a konro or shichirin.
donburi どんぶり 丼 1. pottery or china bowl, two or three times the size of a rice bowl, often with a lid. 2. the food served in such a bowl, consisting of rice with various ingredients placed on top. Among the favorites are oyako donburi, in which chicken and egg are used, tendon with tempura, gyūdon with beef, katsudon with tonkatsu, and unadon with eel. These dishes provide a simple, popular meal in a bowl.
dotenabe どてなべ 土手鍋 nabemono in which the stock is richly flavored with miso. The usual ingredients are oysters and yakidōfu, with shirataki and a variety of fresh vegetables.
—E—
ebi えび 海老、 蝦 prawn, shrimp Penaeidae spp. The word ebi covers a wide range, including crawfish (ise ebi), but unqualified, it usually refers to prawns or shrimps, of which there are many varieties. The amaebi is a sweet-tasting prawn about 12 cm in length particularly used for sushi. The kuruma ebi is larger, at up to 20 cm, and is used for sushi even more than amaebi. It is also used for sashimi and agemono, the best example of which, deservedly very popular, is ebi furai, in which these succulent large prawns are coated with egg and bread crumbs and deep-fried. For tempura, the popular prawn is saimaki ebi, about 7 to 10 cm long, but also the larger shiba ebi, 10 to 15 cm, is extensively used. Shiba ebi is particularly tasty and is also used in sushi, sunomono, and kakiage. The botan ebi grows to 14 cm and is in season from October to May. It can be eaten raw and is also prepared as tempura and furai. The hokkai ebi, about 13 cm long, is prolific off the northern shores of Hokkaido. It can be prepared as tsukudani, though much of the catch is peeled and canned. The giant among the prawns is the taishō ebi, 27 cm long. A kind of kuruma ebi, its true name is kōrai (Korean) ebi. It is used for tempura and furai and is good sautéed with vegetables. At the other end of the scale, the sakura ebi is a pretty little shrimp of 5 cm, a light red color and highly luminescent. It can be eaten as is, but is usually dried, either in the sun or with applied heat. It is used to provide a colorful touch.
edamame えだまめ 枝豆 pod soybean Glycine max. In summer, pods of young soybeans (daizu) on the stalk are boiled and the beans eaten as a side dish with beer. Also called sayamame.
edomaezushi えどまえずし 江戸前鮨 See Appendix 11.
egoma えごま 荏胡麻 perilla Perilla frutescens var. frutescens. The leaves are used in the same ways as those of shiso, and the seeds, when parched, smell just like goma. An edible oil (eno-abura) is also made from the seeds.
ei えい 鱝、 鱏 skate, ray Order Rajiformes. The wings of these large fish, up to 2 m in length, must be eaten very fresh. Skate is cooked as nimono, especially misoni (nimono with miso flavoring) and ei no nikogori 鱝の煮凝り, in which the simmered skate is cooled and jellied. It is also made into amazuankake, a kind of ankake with sweetened vinegar.
ekiben えきべん 駅弁 boxed lunch sold at a railway station. All the major railway stations (eki) throughout Japan have for sale their own special boxed lunch. See also bentō.
endō えんどう 豌豆 peas Pisum sativum. Green peas, although they have been grown in Japan for a long time, are not greatly used in traditional Japanese cooking. A favorite use is to mix them with mashed potato as a salad.
enokitake えのきたけ 榎茸 winter mushroom Flammulina velutipes. The heads of these tiny white mushrooms on long, thin stalks, growing in clumps, would average about 1 cm. They are very versatile in use, but are mostly eaten in nabemono.
—F—
fu ふ 麩 wheat gluten. This ancient product for which Kyoto is renowned comes in two forms. One is raw gluten (nama fu). A dough is made from strong flour (high-gluten flour) and water, and the starch is washed away by kneading under water. The resulting sticky substance is almost
