Gintama

My wife is a big fan of Gintama (which literally means silver balls), and if you don't get the joke kintama is the Japanese word for testicles (literally, golden balls). I don't really like the series, because it's basically a decently done rehash of the gags in "Sexy Commando Gaiden: Sugoi yo, Masaru san!" I noticed that one of the voice actors is Casharin from Sugoi yo, Masarusan, as well.

Anyway, Gintama does play a lot on Japanese cultural icons and ideals, and it provides a quick and easy way to fill you with all the Japanese info you never learned anywhere. The Gintama episode I'm watching right now has a simultaneous reference to Gamara (a crappy 60's Japanese monster) and Momotaro (a Japanese fairy tale).

Chahan - fried rice

Lets back this up to a conversation about rice in general. If you're reading this, you may know a little about making rice, and you may have a rice maker. If you're not Japanese, you may not know how to wash rice:

1. First, put the rice in and put some water in.
2. Slosh the rice around (not hard enough to break the rice) until the water gets white.
3. Dump the water.
4. Go to #2 until the water is pretty clear and match the cup amount with the water amount.



How to make chahan:

1. Put in any raw meat (pork, chicken, beef) and any uncooked vegetables (carrot, onion, etc) and fry it for 2-3 minutes.
2. Take the rice (around two cups or so) and put it in an oiled pan. Sprinkle a half second of mirin (or sake) and soy into the pan. I'm getting a half second of dumping is like 1-2 tablespoons of each. Sprinkle a little katsuobushi or hondashi in it to make it taste even better. * Every cook who tries Japanese should have a pack of Hondashi.
3. Take a whipped egg and dump it on the rice and quickly mix it. Cook while mixinh for about 3-5 minutes until the rice is a light brown.

DONE

The thing about chahan is that VERY GOOD chahan in Japan is a sign of a good cook. Very good chahan usually also means VERY GOOD soy sauce. It's hard to explain the theory, but Japanese believe that the masters of the most basic cooking are also masters of the most difficult.