Sushi rice is the main ingredient in sushi. Learning to make good sushi rice is the most important for cooking any sushi. If you know how to cook Japanese rice properly, it's not hard. Here are step-by-stey instructions on how to cook sushi rice.

Cooking Sushi Rice

Sushi Rice Recipe
_{Sushi Rice Photo © 2008 Setsuko Yoshizuka, licensed to About.com}

The most popular sweet and sour dish in Japan is subuta, sweet and sour pork. If you like fish, serving fried fish with sweet and sour sauce is good too.

Sweet and Sour Fish Recipe

Japanese-style Sweet and Sour Dishes

Sweet and Sour Omelet.
_{Sweet and Sour Fish Photo © 2008 Setsuko Yoshizuka, licensed to About.com, Inc.}

There are many "yoshoku" which are Japanized Western foods in Japan. One of the most popular yoshoku is "hanbaagu", Japanese-style hamburger. People often add various ingredients in hanbagu, such as chopped vegetables, mashed tofu, cheese, and more. This is a basic recipe to make Japanese-style hamburger.

Japanese-style Hamburger Recipe

Japanese Beef Recipes
_{Japanese-style Hamburger Photo © 2008 Setsuko Yoshizuka, licensed to About.com, Inc.}

Have you had Japanese pumpkin sweets? Someone is looking for a recipe to make a pumpkin cake. "Recently I attened a tea cermony and the sweet that they served was made from pumpkin and filled with bean paste. The texture was smooth and moist and of course they were sweet. I have been trying to find a recipe for this..."
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Are you planning to cook for your mother on Mother's Day? If your mother likes Japanese food, how about cooking Japanese home food? Here are some dishes Japanese mothers often cook at home.
Japanese Mothers' Dishes.
_{Nikujaga Photo © 2008 Setsuko Yoshizuka, licensed to About.com, Inc.}

Tendon is a popular Japanese rice bowl. You can use various tempura as the topping. Make your favorite tempura, and put them on steamed rice with tempura dipping sauce.

Vegetable Tempura Rice Bowl Recipe

Japanese Tempura
_{Tendon Photo © 2008 Setsuko Yoshizuka, licensed to About.com, Inc.}

May 5 is Children's Day in Japan. It's traditionally Japanese Boys' Day (tango-no-sekku) as a Japanese girls' celebration is held on March 3. Rice cakes wrapped in oak leaves are called kashiwamochi and are served on Boys' Day.

Kashiwamochi Recipe

Japanese Sweets
_{Photo © 2007 Setsuko Yoshizuka, licensed to About.com, Inc.}

Sushi isn't raw fish. It's basically seasoned rice with various toppings. For sushi beginners, boiled shrimp might be a good choice for topping. Prepare shrimp for sushi at first, and try making shrimp sushi at home.

How to Make Shrimp Sushi at Home

How to Prepare Shrimp for Sushid

Nigiri-zushi

Sashimi (raw fish slices)

Sushi Rice Recipe

Harusame noodles are often used in Asian cooking. Various harusame salads are popular in Japan. It's a recipe to make a refreshing harusame salad with soy sauce based dressing.

Harusame Salad Recipe

Japanese Salad Recipes
_{Photo © 2008 Setsuko Yoshizuka, licensed to About.com, Inc.}

Are you thinking to make a dessert with strawberries? Daifuku is a traditional Japanese cake, and the filling is usually sweet red beans. Putting a whole strawberry inside a daifuku cake was a great invention, and it has become a popular dessert in Japan. It's easy to make them at home.

Ichigo Daifuku Recipe

Daifuku Recipe

Japanese Sweets
_{Ichigo Daifuku Photo © 2007 Setsuko Yoshizuka, licensed to About.com, Inc.}