by Belinda Jillie

Japanese culture is fascinating to many Americans of European descent. We have found a love of all things Japanese, most especially the food! If you’re looking for snack foods or party food with a Japanese flair, here are some great Japanese snack ideas.

Yakitori - A kabob that is quite popular as a snack, party food, or casual dinner item. (Goes well with Japanese beer and Saki.)

You’ll need wooden skewers for this. Soak them in water to prevent burning.

Ingredients: - 3 chicken breasts divided into bite sized chunks - 1 tsp sugar - 2 tbsp sake - 3 tbsp mirin - 3 tbsp soy sauce

Skewer the chicken on the soaked skewers. Mix remaining ingredients in a bowl. Grill the skewered chicken, using the sauce as a baste.

Edamame - This used to be hard to find, but now that edamame has gotten popular with Americans, it’s become more readily available in grocery stores.

It’s easy to serve. You can have it out like a bowl of pretzels (complete with beer for football games), or toss it in a bag as if it were trail mix at eat it on the go. It’s a good way to get kids to eat more vegetables. (But be careful if you’re allergic to soy!)

Wash your edamame thoroughly. Boil a large pot of water. Add a Tablespoon of salt to the boiling water and boil the edamame for three to four minutes. Drain and sprinkle with a little more salt. Cool it and store in an airtight container.

Sunonomo (cucumber and Daikon salad) - This dish is excellent either as a fresh snack in the afternoon or as a side dish for any meal.

Ingredients: - 1 daikan radish - 1 cucumber - 5 tbsp rice vinegar - 2 tbsp sugar - 1 tsp salt

First peel the radish, then slice it thinly. Cut the cucumber into equally thing slices.

Cover both vegetables in salt and leave them alone for about ten minutes, letting the salt soak in. Wash the slices and then drain them completely. Mix together the sugar and vinegar, then pour the mixture over the vegetables. Let this sit for 15 minutes or so before serving.

With the expansion of the Asian section in most grocery stores, and more and more Asian specialty stores opening up, you are sure to find plenty of ingredients and ideas for Japanese snack foods.

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Make sure to visit our Snack Recipes site for more great snacks for kids and even healthy snack ideas your guests will love.

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Tags: Cooking, Food, home, japanese, Recipes, snack, snacks

This entry was posted on Monday, April 7th, 2008 at 2:29 pm and is filed under Articles, Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.