Cooking Around the World – JAPAN

Take your child on an adventure with food! We’re traveling to Japan to learn how to make Sushi. Follow this easy step-by-step guide and explore flavors from around the globe in this series.

Welcome to “Around The World in 12 Dishes”. We will be taking you on a journey around the world, exploring 12 different countries with our children, by cooking 12 dishes with them. One for each country we visit.

We started our journey the same way Phileas Fogg did in London, UK, and Stockholm, Sweden continued on to Moscow in Russia and then, New Delhi, capital of the exotic sub-continent of India! 

Our stop this month is in Japan!

Here’s where we’ve traveled so far on our journey…

• United Kingdom
• Sweden
• India

For more places we’ve visited in this series, visit Recipes for Kids from Around the World

Now I have to admit that my family has never “really” been to Japan. In fact, we don’t know much about this country and are excited to learn more about it this week. 

We were fortunate to be able to take a trip to Walt Disney World’s Theme park of Epcot this year and are using the pictures and information we learned from the day there to springboard our learning!  If you have the chance to take a Disney vacation, Epcot is a great place for traveling “around the world” in a very short amount of time!

No time for a Disney Vacation this week? Travel there virtually, by stopping over at National Geographic for Kids website for kid friendly pictures and facts about Japan. 

Here is another site with facts for kids and lots about Japanese food!

Making Sushi at Home with Kids

For our Japanese Cooking adventure, we decided to try Hand Rolled Sushi with a build-your-own Sushi Bar.

Inspired by one of our favorites, this California Roll Recipe.

I thought this would be a great way to get the kids in the kitchen cooking AND another way to offer healthy vegetables.  The book, “A Cook’s Journey to Japan,” by Sarah Marx Feldner provided us with a guide on how to make Sushi Rice, the ingredients needed, and the directions on how to make them! 

The pictures in this book are gorgeous and the explanations of ingredients and directions are easy to follow – even if I didn’t know where to buy them all! 

For those of you experienced Sushi rollers – this probably seems like a no-brainer to you.  I am not at all an expert, rather, I am the most novice Asian chef ever. 

This was a challenge for me and completely different from the type of cooking I am used to!

Next time I think this Poké Bowl (with Spicy Mayo) would be fun to make too with the kids.

I was pretty excited when my rice turned out to look just like the pictures of hers on page 29!  It is the small things in life that bring joy =)  I sent the kids out to pick the herbs that we had available in the garden. It called for optional Shiso leaves, but I don’t know that herb, so I am pretty sure it didn’t grow in our garden! We opted for chives and cilantro as a substitute!  We tried Basil in a few, but the flavor was not right!

Since we are visiting Grandma and Grandpa, they joined in the fun too!  It was REALLY nice having a couple extra hands to help in the kitchen! 

We brought out our book to show the kids the connection between what we were making and the cookbook. (The kids also went to the library with us to pick out a stack of Japanese Cookbooks.) My mom read through the steps and we followed her, well, Sarah’s instructions.

Our rolls didn’t turn out as pretty as store-bought ones, but they were yummy and a little more budget friendly! My 5 year old built and ate 2 rolls. My 2-year-old said, “This is yucky. Me no like it.” and proceeded to spit it out on his plate!

We’ll also be making a special poke bowl next time too. Made with sushi-grade salmon, white rice, fresh cucumber, creamy avocado, and fresh mango, these poke bowls are a perfectly easy DIY sushi night at home.

Suspecting that this may be his opinion, we didn’t count on Sushi to be our only Japanese dish. Using Japanese Buckwheat noodles, Soba, we made a ginger and soy sauce chicken and vegetable stir fry with fresh veggies from the garden. 

It turned out fabulous (even the 2 year old ate it) and I think I have found a new staple for my kitchen pantry. The noodles are quick to cook and have a delightful nutty flavor!

We were overall very happy with our short trip to Japan and look forward to learning more about the country this month!

Try it at YOUR house!

• Cook a dish from Japan: The goal is to explore this country through FOOD and activities if you wish. Make a typical dish (sweet or savoury) from the country with the kids, take photos and have fun!
• Typical dishes: Sushi, Gohan, Chicken Yakitori, Gyoza, Sukiyaki, Yakisoba.
• Make a craft: you can make a country related craft with the kids 
• Read a book: We recommend “K is for Kabuki“.

For more ideas with your child, you may want to try these…