Thursday: Japanese Food

Oden (= Japanese Hotchpotch/Hodgepodge)

(Homemade Oden)

(Commercial Oden)

This is one of the most popular seasonal foods in Japan called “Oden.” If you make all the ingredients from the scratch, it takes you so long to prepare Oden. But nowadays the Japanese go to grocery stores to get a pack of Oden ingredients and put them in the soup stock, which flavor is different from one another depending on where you live. Basically, you are supposed to put some Japanese mustard on them and enjoy!

(Serving Suggestion of Daikon Radish – Simple!?)

Since Japanese Seven Eleven (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven) started to sell Oden in 1979, Oden has become even more popular as a take-out item. Think about hotdog or brownies for take-out after getting gas at Corner Stores in US. Ingredients of Oden vary depending on where you live, but there seem to be some of them commonly used nationwide. Odendane (Oden Ingredients) absolutely includes boiled eggs, daikon radish, chikuwa (= a kind of fish paste), suji (= cartilage), and konnyaku (= devil’s tongue).

(All Mentioned Above plus Local Flavors)

(This is how Oden are sold at Seven Eleven and Other Convenience Stores in Japan.)

Most Japanese commute by public transportation. After they get off the train tired in the evening, they still have to walk 15 -20 minutes to get back home. They smell Oden from some convenience store, can you blame them if they are lured into the convenience store, which used to be a mobile vendor with Oden cart, to get their dinner? Oden is a must menu for the Japanese during winter time!