Students. Hungry and poor. The history of higher education is irrevocably intertwined with the history of starving students and the cooks who figure out innovative ways to feed them healthful, nutritious foods for very little money. Chanpon is one of those perfect student meals, and now, a great regional dish from Nagasaki, Japan that was originally created for Chinese students visiting Dejima Island in the area.
As with many beloved foreign foods in Japan, chanpon was developed during the Meiji Period (1868-1912). During this era, Japan had opened its borders to the world, sharing knowledge and information, along with culture and food. Students from China would visit Nagasaki, a port city, and head to a local Chinese restaurant called Shikairo. According to the restaurant, the dish was based on a Fujian specialty called tonniishiimen. Korean jjamppong is very similar!
Chanpon is made with pork meat, seafood pieces, and seasonal vegetables, served in a bone broth with noodles. The meat, seafood, and vegetables are sautéed in lard, and the soup base is made using pig bones and whole chickens. The meat, seafood, and vegetables are fried first, then the broth is added directly to the pot. Finally, the thick, chewy noodles are added to the broth mixture and everything is cooked together to seal in the flavor.
Chanpon has become such a popular dish in Japan that different regions have created their own versions. In Shimane and Hyogo Prefectures, a version called ankake chanpon is made using a thick soy sauce soup base while in Akita Prefecture, the soup base is made with miso broth.
Have you ever tried chanpon? Ready to cook packages are available in most Japanese grocery stores in the US, so we hope you decide to make it one day! Be sure to share your story with us in the comments below.
We’ve got it! We’ve designed a brand new,
stylish Toaster Oven – and it’s just as practical and packed with
features as all of our other great small appliances.
Our Toaster Oven (ET-WMC22) is a compact
machine, able to toast two large slices
of bread, making it ideal for individuals and small families. It fits beautifully
on any counter top and comes in a sleek and glossy black finish.
The Toaster Oven lets you cook and reheat various foods effortlessly, along
with toasting bread and mochi. The
cooking settings are controlled by two dials on the Toaster Oven – one that
sets the cooking temperature and one that sets the cooking time. The
temperature dial adjusts the cooking temperature from 175°F to 450°F, perfect
for cooking or reheating various foods like cookies, pizza, and mochi rice cakes. The timer dial can be set up to 30 minutes. Cooking
guidelines for foods commonly cooked in a toaster oven are
imprinted on the door and indicate the appropriate dial settings for these
foods…super easy when you want to make something quickly!
Food is placed on a mesh rack which
helps foods cook more evenly while also reducing grill marks on foods. The mesh
rack is especially useful when cooking mochi rice cakes, as it minimizes dripping through the rack. Foods can also be put on the Baking Tray accessory, which is great
for roasting vegetables. Both the rack and tray are pulled out automatically
when the glass door of the Toaster Oven is opened.
Whenever the Toaster Oven is on, a
bright light indicates that it is in operation, and an audible bell signals
when the course is completed.
One of the great features of this Toaster Oven is Zojirushi’s commitment to Safe Design. All surfaces that
come into contact with food are BPA free. The heater guard at the top of the Toaster
Oven prevents accidental contact, while a guard on the bottom directs fallen
foods away from the heater. The auto pull-out rack reduces the risk of burns
when removing foods.
And as with our other appliances, the Toaster Oven is easy to maintain. The glass door, mesh rack, and crumb tray can all be removed and washed for thorough cleaning.
Our Toaster Oven comes with an instruction manual that has some delicious and simple recipes including Roasted Vegetables and Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. Keep checking back on our website for more recipes and definitely checkout the beautiful Toaster Oven (ET-WMC22) in our product video.
When designing our products, we choose our materials very carefully. We also consider how these materials are put together, with an eye towards functionality, practicality, ease of use, and maintenance. We’ve designed a mesh Safety Net into our water boilers, and this small component protects the dispensing mechanism in a smart way.
The Safety Net is a small, basket-shaped
piece of metal mesh, fixed to the bottom of the inner containers of our water
boilers upside-down. It prevents pieces of limescale or other debris from
entering the dispensing mechanism, which pumps water so it can be dispensed.
Limescale, which is generally comprised of calcium and other minerals naturally
found in water, can build up inside the water boiler through normal use. Over
time, limescale flakes off into small pieces that can get into the dispensing
mechanism of the water boiler, preventing the machine from working properly. The
machine makes a “grinding” sound when water is dispensed and eventually breaks.
The mesh Safety Net acts as a filter that blocks rogue flakes of limescale from
entering the water boilers’ dispensing mechanisms, and as a result, protects it.
Aside from making sure the filter is always in place when in use, we recommend treating your water boiler with our Citric Acid Cleaner once every three months. Doing so will remove limescale even before they flake off. Simply dissolve one packet of the Citric Acid Cleaner in a cup of warm water. Pour the mixture into your empty water boiler and fill the inner container with water. Close the lid and turn the machine onto the cleaning cycle, as per the instruction manual. Once the cycle finishes – usually about an hour later – unplug the machine and empty out the water. The final step is to rinse and dispense resulting in your water boiler becoming just like new! Check out ourinstructional videoand if you ever lose your Safety Net, remember that a replacementcan always be purchased from our Parts & Accessories store!
Stay tuned for next month’s Design Explained,
where we talk about more smart and innovative features built into our products!
What is this? I’ll give you a hint: they’re used in pairs, usually; and they’re used to cook these, affectionately known as “Japanese pancakes.” A friend of mine used to give me a tutorial on how to handle these, and he was able to flip his massive creations in one quick, skillful motion. After mixing the batter and all the ingredients, we would pour it on the teppan, or steel griddle, then wait patiently for it to cook. Armed with one of these tools in each hand, he would slide it under the pancake on each side and deftly flip the whole thing on the first try, to cook the other side. Did you guess we were cooking Okonomiyaki? If you want to try cooking your own, you can see the Zojirushi recipe. Then go to your Asian supermarket to find the right tools for the fun of flipping them over! (This is called a “kote” in the Kansai (western) area of Japan, where okonomiyaki was born)
How about this? A piece of string? Sticks? Why are they tied together? You’ve seen these before and probably used them at home or in a restaurant, but yours were probably much shorter. In Japan, these are used for cooking when you don’t want to get too close to the hot stove or hot oil, like when deep frying. It takes a bit of skill to handle these, so if you’re not that confident, I would recommend tongs instead—no embarrassment in that. So why are they tied together? Just to keep from losing one, I think. But it’s also handy for hanging them from a hook. If you want to learn more about chopsticks, you can read more about how they’re made.
This one is easy—just paper, right? But how is it used in cooking? Since the Japanese do a lot of deep fry cooking, this paper is used to blot the excess oil that comes off of just-fried tempura or ebi fry (fried prawn). Americans deep fry a lot too, but we seem less concerned with making our fried chicken look good on the table—we’d probably just lay it on paper towels. It serves the same purpose, but these papers make tempura look so much better. Learn how Zojirushi does it.
This device can be found in American kitchens as well, but this happens to be a very small personal one that can be placed right along side your sushi, grilled fish or maybe tofu. Think about it—what condiment is normally served with sushi? The answer is wasabi—and if you’re a fan, you haven’t had great wasabi until you’ve had the fresh version that doesn’t come in a tube. How about grilled fish? Many people love fish (myself included), but the oiliness can sometimes get to be too much, so you’ll often see it served with a small mound of white daikon radish, which not only enhances the flavor of the fish but also aids in digestion. And tofu? Small blocks of tofu served chilled (hiyayakko) or hot (yudofu) are sometimes dressed with a bit of ginger paste to give it additional spice. What do all these condiments have in common? If you figured out that they all need to be grated, you win the prize. If you want to make yudofu at home, here’s a simple recipe from Zojirushi.
Obviously this is what you probably think it is. But why is it so flat and shallow? In Japanese cooking, many recipes call for hot pots or nabe dishes. As the ingredients cook, scum or foam rises to the surface of the water from the protein produced by the soup stock. Skimming this off keeps the stock nice and clear, and not cloudy. This handy gadget is more indispensable than you think, when you’re making a traditional Mizutaki hot pot.
What th-? It’s so groovy, man. Did you know that Japan is a huge consumer of the sesame seed, importing almost 160,000 tons every year from Latin America? There are 3 different kinds of sesame used in various ways in Japanese cuisine. White Sesame is the most common and the most popular because it has the lightest taste and can be used in salad dressings or to garnish salads. Black Sesame is more distinctive, with a nutty taste, so it’s often used for marinades or crushed to a paste to enhance salads and desserts. Golden Sesame is found in what we might call “rice sprinkles”, or furikake, a very popular seasoning for white rice and onigiri (rice balls). You can buy crushed sesame seeds in packages, but it’s always more fragrant and tastes better if you use this simple tool and do it yourself.
For more crazy and exotic kitchen gadgets found only in Japanese cooking, check this out.
Japanese people love good food. Traditional, seasonal, festive and of course, foreign foods!
One of the most universally loved foods is noodles, and in Japan, Italian spaghetti has been adapted to Japanese taste in a dish called Supagetti, or Spaghetti, Naporitan. Legend has it that the dish was invented in August of 1945, by Shigetada Irie, the head chef at the Hotel New Grand in Yokohama. On the 30th of that month, General Douglas MacArthur, leader of the Allied Forces during World War II, established his headquarters at the hotel, and in an effort to accommodate the new guests, Chef Irie developed a pasta dish inspired by the classical Italian pasta napolitana and the American spaghetti with ketchup that was served to military men.
Needless to say, the new dish was a hit, and has become a staple dish wherever yoshuku, or “Japanized Western food”, is served. Today Supagetti Naporitan is made with cooked durum wheat-based spaghetti, onions, bell peppers, sausage, ketchup, salt and grated parmesan cheese. The vegetables and sausage are stir-fried in oil, to which the spaghetti and ketchup are added, with all of the ingredients getting finished in a quick pan sauté. The dish is garnished with parsley and grated parmesan cheese and served hot.
The original recipe developed by Chef Irie, who was classically trained in French and Italian cuisines, used canned pureed tomatoes instead of ketchup, as well as garlic, mushrooms and bacon. Supagetti Naporitan is at heart an international dish. The pastas favored in the Naples region of Italy, where San Marzano tomatoes famous for their sweet acidity grow, is often considered the birthplace of simple spaghetti with tomato sauce and cheese. Popularized in the United States following multiple waves of Italian immigration which took place the 18th century, pasta napolitana became a staple in American households. World War II causes widespread scarcity, and instead of fresh, high-quality tomatoes, many families substituted ketchup for the more traditional tomato sauce. Add to this mix Japanese influences – sausages, pan-frying and vegetables – and you have a multi-cuisine but oh-so-comforting dish. Full of umamifrom the tomatoes and cheese, protein and vegetables, and chewy noodles familiar to the Japanese palette, this dish was destined to become a staple in Japanese cuisine, just like in Italian and American cuisines.
Today, Supagetti Naporitan is available in local mom-and-pop coffee shops throughout Japan, as well as at yoshoku restaurants and chain restaurants. Since it is such a simple dish, it is most often eaten for weekday lunch or dinner and can quickly be made at home.
Have you tried Supagetti Naporitan? Be sure to share your story with us in the comments below!
