Breakfast on the run.

[Animo]

I recently had the pleasure of bringing our 10 Japanese Tai Kai guests to the local tourist attractions in Orlando Florida. I drove them around in a 15-person van we had rented. Can anyone suggest a quick breakfast that would be palatable to the group of Japanese that are coming next year? It should be something that is pre-made and can be eaten in a van. Some of my previous attempts were complete failures. The American staple of donuts politely disappeared, but I'm sure none were actually eaten. What sorts of drinks cross the cultural barrier? I've only had luck with bottled water, coke, diet coke, and orange juice. My Japanese guests were grateful for my efforts, but I could use some advice.

[Earl Hartman]

Nigiri rice balls and hot green tea.

It sounds like lunch, but it should work for breakfast as well. It might not be a proper breakfast (you need miso soup for that), but it will certainly be better than donuts, and if you have to eat in a van, rice balls are convenient and don't require any dishes.

Earl

[hyaku]

Sandwiches. Egg, tuna, tomato. And cut the crusts off.

Rice balls are best as Mr Hartman suggested.

Donuts are for "younger Japanese" mostly girls.

I also go to the convenience store and let them chose their own. Seems to be more fun.

Hyakutake Colin

p.s. Just had some nice Unagi and Karashi Mentai

[Neil Yamamoto]

A suggestion of what my mother used to do to go with nigiri for breakfast. This makes a better lunch to me, but since you are dealing with a culture that eats fish for breakfast...

Skewers of diced chicken. I could call it yakitori but this is America so... Cooked up and refrigerated the night before. Easy to eat off the skewers as well. Could do small pieces of fish as well.

Make the nigiri a little more interesting. Put some umeboshi(pickled plums) or ume paste in the middle of the nigiri and wrap in nori(seaweed). A light sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds works great as well.

BTW, I used to make one with peanut butter and jelly in the middle just for fun and see who would get it and see if they would say anything. Most of the time no one would make a sound and they would just eat it. It actually tastes OK in case you get stuck with it.

Of course, you could make some of Earl's favorite treats, natto rolls too. MMMMM, nothing better then the smell of natto in a stuffy car.

Don't forget the handiwipes and napkins!

[Earl Hartman]

Neil:

Natto maki? Gork.

Personally, I like my nigiri stuffed with broiled salmon or what my wife calls "okaka" (hold the jokes, please), which is katsuobushi flakes moistened with a little shoyu and mixed with chopped scallions. Yum!

Peanut butter and jelly onigiri? You're an evil man, Yamamoto.

Earl

[Neil Yamamoto]

Earl,

Please note I said I used to do the peanut butter and jelly nigiri. I have ceased my childish behavior in the past few years.(Toby, Aaron, Joe, Doug - Please no comments!)

I like my onigiri with lox style smoked salmon, smoked halibut, or smoked tuna, fresh from the Portlock smokehouse here in Seattle. A little shoyu and some scallions diced up like with the katsuboshi you mentioned.

MMM, guess what I'm having for dinner.

[Earl Hartman]

Neil:

Ummm...if you can have lox in onigiri, does that mean you can have chu toro on a bagel?

Earl

PS Actually, now that I think about it that doesn't sound half bad, but I think my wife would divorce me if I "wasted" good sashimi on a bagel.

PPS Which single malt goes best with onigiri?

PPPS Were you aware that the Russian word for caviar is "ikra"? Which do you think came first, "ikura" or "ikra"?

[Neil Yamamoto]

Earl wrote:
Ummm...if you can have lox in onigiri, does that mean you can have chu toro on a bagel?
Neil wrote:
Sure, as long as the fish is prepared to kosher standards.

Earl wrote:
PS Actually, now that I think about it that doesn't sound half bad, but I think my wife would divorce me if I "wasted" good sashimi on a bagel.
Neil wrote:
I'm not married, but my mom would kill me if i put sashimi on a bagel.

Earl wrote:
PPS Which single malt goes best with onigiri?
Neil wrote:
Glenlivet 12yr is about perfect. Not too heavy, not to smoky. Good alternatives, Glenkinichie 10 yr, or Abelour 10yr. Of course if you have nori on the onigiri,then you should go with an Islay like Bowmore Legend, Bruichladdie, Bunnahabain. THe other Islay are to smoky.

Earl wrote:
PPPS Were you aware that the Russian word for caviar is "ikra"? Which do you think came first, "ikura" or "ikra"?
Neil wrote:
No but I am now. Ikura came first of course. The Japanese are an older culture(or so they always claim). HAve to dig into lingustic history books now to find out. Wait! I'll just ask Joe Svinth- he knows everything. Serous thread drift here...

[Earl Hartman]

Neil:

Damn. I am gonna just HAVE to get up there to have onigiri with you one of these days.

Earl

[Kris]

Tamagoyaki is a pretty easy breakfast and it goes with onigiri pretty well. The shoyu could be be a bit messy though. And I have no idea which type of single malt goes best with it, as I prefer to drink it all by itself

[Steve Williams]

Hi Mike

I must say that Onigiri is well recieved by all as a good basic easy breakfast.

Try these sites:
http://www.sugawara.com/frame/recipe-ef.html
http://www.cyberfair.org/smis/delicious/onigiri.html
http://www.tjf.or.jp/eng/ge/ge05obento.htm
http://riceinfo.rice.edu/projects/to...ne/onigiri.htm
http://www.wnn.or.jp/wnn-tokyo/engli.../onigiri0.html

Hope these are helpful, (they are certainly interesting).