Japanese home-cooking

The most frustrating thing for me in attempting to recreate home-cooking for Hiro and my Japanese guests is making authentic Japanese cuisine. I'm talking home cooking, the kind your mother used to make for you. The problem is, I never grew up with Japanese cooking - only some o-inari sushi, chawan mushi (Chinese style), and a variant of Japanese chicken curry. So I had no idea what was おふくろの味, ofukuro-no-aji, Japanese mother's taste.

Often I was left clueless, staring at my end-product, wondering if it tasted anything like the real thing...my only benchmark was prepared food from Jusco or Kasumi, local supermarkets. It was not until years later that I learned the store-bought food was much sweeter, oilier, and saltier than normal home-cooking.

Now I have a good litmus tester, Hirotsugu-san. If he smiles and tells me my miso soup is 'Taiwanese style,' it means it is overly sweet. If he wrinkles his nose it means it tastes funny. If he says, it tastes normal...I am overjoyed! It means I made authentic-tasting soup.

Do you know nikujaga (see pic...not mine though)? It is said that if a woman can make this well, she will be a good wife. The first few times I made this, I failed miserably - either too salty, overly sweet, wrong potatoes, not cooked long enough...the list goes on. Two weeks ago I made this and was delighted to hear that it tasted like usual 肉じゃが, nikujaga...whooopie, I had done it! Now if only I can repeat that from now on...hee hee.