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Breakfast (asagohan)
***** Location: Japan
***** Season: Topic
***** Category: Humanity
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Explanation
Breakfast, an important meal to start the day.
asameshi, asagohan あさめし (朝飯) breakfast
asameshi mae, before breakfast, means an easy taks than can be done with no special effort.
The most basic ingedients are rice, miso soup, natto, a piece of fish and some tsukemono pickles, usually umeboshi salty plums. Some nori seaweed is added in a special longish plate, to dip in soy sauce and wrap the boiled rice in.
Green tea goes best with a traditional breakfast.
There are many regional differences, even in the traditional Japanese breakfast.
In Osaka, for example, they serve Oden in winter to keep warm.
Now there are electric rice cookers you can fill with rice and water, set the time for breakfast and go to bed. Next morning, the cooked rice is ready on the spot.
There are also some break-making maschines of this type now for your Western-style breakfast.
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asagohan 朝ごはん
Traditional Japanese Breakfast
The traditional Japanese breakfast differs fundamentally from the Western style one. A traditional Japanese breakfast consists basically of rice and miso soup. As many aspects of Japanese life style, also the breakfast culture has been Westernized heavily over the last 150 years.
... As for beverages, most popular choices are milk (35%), coffee (32%), green tea (31%) and English tea (21%). The percentage of coffee drinkers is with 44% much higher among company workers.
... In another question we asked the survey participants how much time they invest in their daily breakfast. Again, around 12% indicated not to eat breakfast at all. 29% eat their breakfast in less than 10 minutes, 35% in between 10 to 15 minutes and the remaining 24% in over 15 minutes.
... an overwhelming majority of 72% watches television while eating breakfast. 27% read the newspaper, 23% have a conversation with somebody and 12% listens to the radio.
source : www.japan-guide.com
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Asagayu, 朝粥 あさがゆ O-Kayu, okayu, rice gruel
Morning rice porridge, breakfast porridge meal
It can be a simple bowl of sofly cooked rice with just one umeboshi pickled plum or some elaborate side-dishes to go with it.
for example
uzuragayu うずらがゆ rice gruel with quail eggs
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Rice gruel (kayu) Japan. Porridge, congee in many kigo.
. . . CLICK here for morning porridge Photos !
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Other types of breakfast
Western style
includes toast, eggs, sausages or ham, jam and a bowl of salad or fruit.
Poeple with little time in the morning often just have a slice of toast and a cup of coffee.
Children drink milk, grown-ups coffee, black tea or green tea.
There are made special efforts lately to make sure children have a proper breakfast before going to school, to imporve their learning abilities.
Baikingu バイキング "viking" style all you can eat, mostly in hotels.
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Worldwide use
Frühstück
Japanisches Frühstück
asameshi mae
einfache Sache; etw., was man vor dem Frühstück erledigen kann
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Things found on the way
Natto, nattoo 納豆
Natto is made by fermenting soybeans with the bacillus natto bacterium and is characterized by its strong smell and sticky and stringy consistency. This is a must-eat breakfast dish for many Japanese people and a number of hotels serve it for breakfast. Having said that, there are a lot of Japanese people who do not like it and people do not eat it very often in the Kansai region. Generally, people pour soy sauce onto natto, but they also add mustard, leeks, eggs and such if they like.
source : www.welcome.city.sapporo.jp
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kurome nattoo 黒目納豆 made from soy beans with "black eyes"
kurome daizu 黒目大豆
. . . CLICK here for Photos !
. DARUMA and Natto Fermented Bean Brands
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HAIKU
Kobayashi Issa
朝飯を髪にそよそよ猫の恋
asameshi o kami ni soyo-soyo neko no koi
breakfast rice
stuck in his whiskers...
lover cat in a rush
朝飯の鐘をしりてや雀の子
asameshi no kane o shirite ya suzume no ko
he knows the meaning
of the breakfast bell...
baby sparrow
大磯や早朝飯で鴫の立
ôiso ya haya asameshi de shigi no tatsu
on a large beach
early risers for breakfast...
snipe
. .Tr. David Lanoue
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Breakfast in Kenya, December 2009
morning sun --
a child billowing smoke from
a tinsel tea cup
~ yamame
sugarless tea
my brother keeps off --
a cold morning
~ Antony Njoroge
Kenya Saijiki Forum
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winter morning -
the mouse nibbles my
breakfast bread
Gabi Greve, January 2007
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Related words
***** WASHOKU : General Information
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Japan Times, October 10,2009
ReplyDeleteBreakfast deja vu — have we met before?
By AMY CHAVEZ
Hot dogs for breakfast anyone?
If you order a "Western breakfast" in Japan, you're likely to get breakfast that includes either hot dogs or salad. This is the image of what foreigners eat. No wonder the Japanese think we're strange.
Although the classic Japanese breakfast is miso soup with rice, this breakfast is seldom found in the Japanese home these days, possibly because it is far too healthy.
These days, most Japanese people opt for a breakfast of industrial size toast with butter or cheese, an egg or two and a glass of milk. And this is what they carry with them onto the trains in the mornings and which you will occasionally hear being digested through gurgles from neighboring train passengers.
If you looked into the stomachs of Westerners on the same train, however, you'd find a wide variety of food making its way through the intestines: cereal, fruit, bagels, English muffins, croissants, pancakes, bacon & eggs, etc. I doubt there would be a leaf of lettuce or a hot dog on a bun with mustard passing through.
But still, stereotypes remain. The other morning, I went to visit a foreign guest staying at one of the minshuku on the island. There was a large bowl of boiled cabbage in the middle of the breakfast table. There were sausages (the hot dog effect?) laying on the top of the cabbage with boiled onions in between. It was all arranged in an earthenware nabe pot. Even though the breakfast was just for one guest, there was enough food in the bowl to feed a family of five.
"What's that?" I asked Junko pointing to the cabbage concoction. "Breakfast," she said. "Japanese breakfast?" I presumed. "Western breakfast," she corrected me. "That's what I serve all the gaijin for breakfast," she added proudly while placing a lone empty omelet on a plate in front of the guest. The omelet looked like it had just crossed the finish line of a marathon and had expired right there.
But Junko is an excellent cook. Despite what the food looks like, it really is quite tasty. She uses her own homegrown herbs and is very creative with her mixtures. It's just not what you expect when you hear the term "Western breakfast."
Which is why I prefer to call her food "fusion." East meets west on the plate, the Japanese food identifiable by the soy sauce and blob of wasabi on the side and the Western food identifiable by its . . . uhhh, cowboy hat and holsters.
Breakfast deja vu is when, at the breakfast table, you suddenly get this funny feeling you've eaten this meal before. "Haven't I seen that asparagus in that same blue patterned bowl before? And look at that fish! I can't remember the name but I never forget a face, especially not this one: mouth gaping, tongue hanging out, eyes glazed over. Aha! I have seen it before — last night on the dinner table. That was the fish I was avoiding. And that asparagus too."
Like all over Asia, the remains of last night's supper are just as eligible for breakfast the next morning. Which is why you may as well eat everything on your dinner plate so as not to be confronted with the same ornery fish or vegetable the next morning. There's no escaping some foods.
The other night I ate dinner with Junko. She had made spaghetti, which she is very proud of. So the next day when I dropped by her house, I wasn't surprised when she offered me the leftovers from the night before. "Take this for lunch," she said, shoving a bag into my hands.
When I got home I opened the bag — spaghetti sandwiches!
This is when it hit me. While foreigners may have a specific concept of what Western food is, the Japanese don't. To them, Western food is quite simply anything that isn't Japanese.