The Anime Blog - We Go Beyond Anime!

On these chilly days, nothing says comfort like a hot bowl of food you can wrap your hands around. And nothing says easy comfort like a dish that’s cheap to make and simple to cook.
In Japan, gohan, rice, is synonymous with meal. It’s a cinch to toss a few seasonal ingredients into a pot of [...]

Fall is creeping in by degrees around the globe and soon the odors of roasting sanma and grilling satsumaimo will fill the air in Japan. In the US, the fall air will smell like mulching leaves and fresh carved pumpkins. We may be short on fall food sidewalk vendors to scent the breeze, but we’re [...]

In Japan, if you have a jones for a snack, you’re covered. The huge amount of street food and vendors alike ensure you need not walk four blocks without something to eat in between. Thanks to anime, Westerners are introduced to a wide variety of these intriguing street foods. Okonomiyaki turns up in Tsubasa, takoyaki has made an appearance in The Wallflower and dango is everywhere you look, most notably in Sailor Moon.

Taiyaki is not only in anime (most recently in Kanon) it even has it’s own hit single, “Oyoge! Taiyaki-kun” (”Swim! Taiyaki”) by Masato Shimon. ... Continue Reading...

When you’re having fun on the go and you’re looking for snackage, food which is as mobile as you is always a good thing. In Japan, country of a thousand festivals, food mobility is an important factor to enjoying the celebrations. Many festival snacks come in ball form (takoyaki), on a stick (yakitori) or both, making carrying around your food without making a mess easy. These two snack attributes are best personified in a treat almost as old as the festivals: dango.

Dango are dumplings which can be either savory or sweet and are often, but not always, served on a bamboo skewer. Savory dango are many times covered in some type of soy-based sauce, which can either be sweet, salty or both, and can be served with nori sprinkled on top or completely wrapped in a sheet of seaweed.... Continue Reading...

Spring! It’s officially here, I can smell it. Winter knows its time has come, and even though freak snow storms batter our doors, they’re merely the death throes of a passing season. Soon, the ground will be covered in colorful drifts of crocuses, daffodils, and depending on the locale, cherry blossoms.... Continue Reading...

It’s coming soon! White Day is this Friday! It’s our day ladies! Our day to rake in the goodies after we forked ‘em over on Valentine’s Day!

Valentine’s Day in Japan, to those who are unfamiliar, is a day when women give men chocolate (choco) and don’t get diddly in return. That’s right, nadda. Women even have to go so far as to give choco to men they might not even like. Isn’t that a shame? Well, a candy marketer came up with the concept of White Day to correct this injustice. ... Continue Reading...

In part one of “Man, What’s Up With Manju?”, I gave some background on manju, aka man, and listed a few varieties of man common in Japan. If you’d like to play with your own manju recipe, here’re two basic recipes to toy with and finesse to your preference. I’ve also included four complete manju recipes as well.... Continue Reading...

Man, there’s this Japanese food called manju, and it’s crazy how many different varieties of this snack are out there. There’s An Man (anko filled manju) Kare Man (curry flavored manju filled with curried meat) Niku Man (meat filled Chinese-style manju) and even Pizza Man (this is one manju that really delivers!) This versatile food is a filled, or plain, steamed wheat dough bun which has its roots in Chinese cuisine. ... Continue Reading...