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Breakfast and Brunch in Japan - an overview
 Asagohan or asameshi
In Japan, breakfasts don't differ from other meals a great deal. Most Japanese breakfasts include a bowl of steamed white rice, a small piece of salmon, salmon trout or other fish, a bowl of miso soup with tofu, vegetables, green tea and sometimes tiny pickled plums called umeboshi. Also common are hot bowls of noodles in broth topped with thin slices of pork, chopped scallions and bamboo shoots.
A few dishes are unique to breakfast like rice porridge, often mixed with a little salty fish sauce which adds flavour. Tofu whey is prepared at breakfast, which has the consistency similar to scrambled eggs.
Eggs are a breakfast food in Japan just as they are elsewhere in the world, however they are often presented raw at breakfast time and added to steamed rice together with a little soy sauce, perhaps a little salmon and a strip of nori seaweed to create your own sushi type roll.
Another egg dish, which is a soft delicate savoury custard called chawan-mushi, is eaten at breakfast as well as other meals. Served in a tiny covered cup with a demitasse-size spoon, it usually has a single, perfect slice of mushroom or a minuscule fern leaf floating in it.
Street vendors make a variety of breakfasts like pancakes made on small hot plates, sandwiched with a sauce such as sweet red bean and presented in a waxed paper wrapping.
If breakfast is taken in a Japanese restaurant it would be miso soup, rice with nori, natto, grilled fish, raw egg and pickled vegetables. Green tea is the traditional drink and more common now is coffee. |
Breakfast Recipes from Japan
Japanese Miso SoupA traditional Japanese breakfast will always include miso soup and often a selection of six or more dishes to include grilled fish, steamed rice, seaweed, eggs and of course green tea.
¼ cup of miso (fermented soybean paste)
2oz tofu (bean curd)
1oz niboshi (dried small whole sardines),
1-2 packets of wakame (dried young seaweed)
2 scallions finely chopped.
To make the stock put the niboshi in a saucepan add 2 ½ cups of water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 5-10 minutes depending on the strength of flavour required. Remove the pan from the heat and strain the liquid through muslin. Return the liquid to a clean pan.
Place the wakame in a boil and cover with cold water. Leave to soak for 5-10 minutes or until fully expanded and soft. Drain the wakame and set aside. Place the miso in a small bowl and dilute it with a few spoonfuls of the stock. Place the saucepan of stock over a moderate heat. Just before it boils add the diluted miso and reduce the heat to a simmer.
Cut the tofu into small cubes and add them to the pan with the wakame. Bring to the boil then remove the pan from the heat and add the finely chopped scallions. Serve hot in warmed individual soup bowls
| Chawan-mushi
Makes 4 servings
3 eggs
1/2 cup dashi soup stock
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp sake
1 chicken thigh
4 shiitake mushrooms
1 oz mitsuba (trefoil)
2 oz. kamaboto fish cakes
Cut the chicken into small cubes. Slice the kamaboto and shiitake mushrooms thinly. Beat the eggs in a bowl and add the dashi, soy sauce, salt, sake, and sugar.
Strain the egg mixture. Prepare four cups and put shiitake, chicken, and kamaboto in each cup. Pour the egg mixture into each cup filling them to ¾ full. Place the mitsuba on top of each cup and cover the cups with lids. (use aluminium foil or plastic wrap if you don't have lids.) Preheat a steamer on high heat. Turn down the heat and carefully place cups in the steamer. Steam the custard for 15 min. Poke the custard with a bamboo stick. If clear soup comes out, it's cooked.
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Have you had breakfast here? - then tell us about it..
Although not in Japan the Montcalm Hotel in Great Cumberland Place, London W1 serves a superb and truly authentic Japanese breakfast. The choice includes Grilled Salmon, Aji or Tara fish with miso, Gohan (steamed) rice, miso soup with spring onion & Tofu, dried seaweed and a soft creamy egg, a slice of melon and Japanese Green Tea. J. Daniels 11/10/06
Breakfast in Nagoya. Rice, salted fish, fermented beans called natto, odd bits of pickled veggies and bits of seaweed...and of course miso soup. To be fair, I was offered a Western style breakfast and had refused preferring the Japanese one. Scientist22. 10/08/06
When I was there, I ate a lot of what I understand was some kind of traditional breakfast (although I made it myself, I am sure I did not make up the idea). It consisted of cracking an egg into hot rice from the rice cooker and stirring it up and adding soy sauce to taste. It ends up like a savory rice oatmeal. MT 26/02/09 |
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