Episode 23: Summer eatin’, having a blast…

It's summer! And aside from having songs from 70s movies that were
set in the 50s stuck in our heads, we can't stop thinking about all
the fantastic summer foods we love. So without further ado, let's
dive right into all the fantastic summer foods Japan has to offer!
Produce Cucumbers - look for them in tsukemono (pickled cucumber),
sliced with miso-sesame dressing, and kappa maki (cucumber sushi
rolls) Eggplant can be found grilled, steamed with miso glaze, in
vegetable curries, and pickled in tsukemono Musk melon. The outside
looks like cantaloupe, but the inside is yellower. It has a very
distinct flavor (and it's pricy - $100/piece!) Many melon-flavored
things can be found in Japan, such as Hi-Chew, ice cream, and sodas
Watermelon - just like here in the US, watermelon is a popular
summer fruit in Japan (though it's far more expensive there!) Pepsi
will be offering a Salty Watermelon-flavored Pepsi starting this
week (July 24th)... if any of our listeners are in Japan right now,
we'd love it if you can try it and let us know how it is! (We're so
disappointed we're missing it. You can also find watermelons in all
sorts of shapes, like cubes, hearts, pyramids... Suica wari is a
popular watermelon splitting game... each person takes turns
getting blindfolded and taking a swing at the watermelon with a
stick (kind of like a piñata)... whomever breaks the watermelon
open wins, and then everyone shares the watermelon. (If any of you
do this, we want video!) Noodles Somen:

somen salad

hiyashi somen served on ice with a dipping sauce (tsuyu) and
toppings

nagashi somen - flowing noodles. Similar to kaiten sushi, but
the somen flows down a length of bamboo filled with icy water,
and you have to pick the noodles out with your chopsticks!

Hiyashi chuka or hiyashi udon - chilled chuka (ramen) noodles
or chilled udon noodles. These are different from chilled somen
because they're served with their toppings on top, instead of on
the side. Zaru soba - soba (buckwheat noodles) served on a "zaru"
(a woven bamboo plate) (By the way, buckwheat is gluten-free, BUT
most soba is made with a little wheat flour so it isn't
gluten-free. "Ni-hachi" refers to noodles that are made with two
parts wheat flour and eight parts buckwheat flour. "Ju-wari" or
"to-wari" soba refer to 100% buckwheat soba.) Yakisoba - pan-fried
chuka noodles (ramen noodles) with thinly sliced pork, cabbage,
bean sprouts, a little sauce... like a Japanese version of chow
mein, except so much better. Other Foods Unagi - eel that has been
skinned, butterflied, steamed, grilled, then topped with eel sauce.
It's eaten during summer because they believe it gives you stamina
to get you through the hot, muggy days of summer. Hiyayakko -
chilled tofu topped with shoyu, grated ginger, green onion, grated
daikon, or Japanese mustard. (Also try chilled tofu topped with
maple syrup - delicious!) Edamame - green soybeans, still in their
pods, boiled and then tossed with coarse sea salt Kakigori - shaved
ice. Very finely shaved, like snow (not crushed ice, like a snow
cone), then topped with flavored syrups (strawberry, cherry, lemon,
green tea, melon, sweet plum) sweetened condensed milk, adzuki
beans. Anmitsu - sweet, fruit-flavored jelly cubes, anko, mochi,
fresh fruit, and a sweet black syrup made with black sugar.
Variation: cream anmitsu comes with a scoop of ice cream. Soft
cream - Japanese soft serve. Some of Rachael's favorite flavors
include hokkaido milk, purple sweet potato, black sesame, and musk
melon. What Japanese summer foods have you had this summer? What
are some of your favorites, or which do you want to try?