What is mirin?
Mirin is called sweetened sake in English. It is made of glutious rice,fermented rice and sake (Japanese rice wine). It brings out sweetness, luster and taste to various foods.

What is sake?
Sake is rice wine. It is made from fermented rice. If you use sake for dishes, it brings out more flavor and taste to the verious ingredients.
Do not drink sake too much! You may get drunk easily!

What is the difference between dashi and hondashi?
According to my mom, dashi and hondashi are same. Dashi is soup stock. It is requirement for many Japanese dishes. There are some kinds of dashis. I introduce some of them. *KONBU DASHI *
You need dried kelp and water.
1. Pour 10 cups of water into a pot.
2. Wipe dried kelp and add it to water. Do not wash dried kelp but wipe.
3. Heat water over medium flame.
4. When it comes to boil, take kelp out of the pot.
5. Now you have soup stock with kelp flavor.

*NIBOSHI DASHI*
You need dried sardine and water.
1. Remove heads and innards of 20 dried sardine and tear them into halves. Wash them coarsely.
2. Put sardines and 5 cups of water into a pot.
3. Heat over medium flame without a lid.
4. When it comes to boil, skim off the bubbles and turn off the heat.
5. Take out sardines.
6. Now you have soup stock with sardine flavor.

Those two dashis are more simple than others. You may find ichban-dashi, niban-dashi or dashi which is powder. You can use any dashi for everything; it depends on what flavor you like. Dashi is used for miso-soup, udon-soup, chawan-mushi and so forth.

What is shoyu?
Shoyu is soy sauce. It is made from steamed soybeans, wheat, salt, water and fermented rice through a process of mixing,fermentation and maturation. Generally, it is a brown salty sauce, and has rich flavor and aroma. There are two kinds of soy sauce: thick type and thin type. Japanese soy sauce and Chinese soy sauce are different.

How to cook steamed rice?
That’s very simple. You need just rice and water. Here is the instruction for four people. You need 3 cups of rice.
1. Wash rice with water and soak in water for at least 30 minutes.
2. Cook in a pot with 3 3/5 cups of water (1.2 times more than rice). Cook rice over high flame until it boils, and then turn to medium flame and cook for a few minutes. After medium heat, change the heat to low flame, then simmer for 15 minutes. Do not open the lid during cooking.
3. After rice is done, keep the lid on for 15-20 minutes.