JSL: April 21st-25th

Apr 27, 2008 • Japanese School Lunch

Please note that the American menu provided is from my middle school in the US. It is meant to serve as a comparison.

With the exception of Beef Day (kind of a local, support your farmers thing), all the meat was fried or deep-fried this week. Not so healthy, perhaps, but with spring starting to come, I think the food will get lighter. Some of the portions this week are a little larger because various people have been absent.

One of the best things is that it’s mountain vegetable season. There are so many strange vegetables that we never eat in the US available for sale in the farmer’s markets and the local groceries. The school lunches often reflect this availability so Friday’s lunch featured these foods.

The food the kids at my old middle school are eating is a little different. I never remembered having blueberry muffins. I would have loved blueberry muffins for lunch, except I don’t think it should be combined with pizza. Maybe a salad or something non-greasy.

April 21, 2008

Japanese Menu	American Menu
Barley rice Fried horse mackerel Boiled vegetables Potato and onion miso soup Dried daikon salad Milk	Domino’s Pizza Peas Peaches Blueberry muffin Milk
Other Notes
The red ring on the rice container denotes a teacher’s servings. Elementary school rice servings are about 1/2 the usual amount.

April 22, 2008

Japanese Menu	American Menu
Koppepan (bread roll) Beef stew Nijiki (seaweed) salad Blueberry jam Grapefruit Milk	Chicken nuggets Broccoli Applesauce Roll Milk
Other Notes
Dishes that involve beef are generally tied to a “support your local farmer” kind of thing. One of the main industries here is dairy and beef farming and unlike some of the neighboring districts, we get beef about twice a month.

April 23, 2008

Japanese Menu	American Menu
Rice Mapo Dofu Spring roll Cucumber and daikon salad Milk	Hot dog on bun Macaroni and cheese Baked beans Pineapple Milk
Other Notes
This is a “ethnic” lunch set. Occasionally they have theme days like this, generally Chinese food but sometimes Korean food. I love mapo dofu.

April 24, 2008

Japanese Menu	American Menu
Shokupan (white bread) Egg soup Chicken and potatoes, fried Chinese-style Margarine and strawberry jam Fruit salad Milk	Steak and cheese on sub roll Lettuce Pickles Corn Pears Milk
Other Notes
You can’t really see in the picture but the potatoes are actually crinkle-cut fries. I’m fairly certain Chinese-style doesn’t mean crinkle-cut fries….

April 25, 2008

Japanese Menu	American Menu
Mountain vegetables rice Nameko (mushroom) soup Deep fried marinated salmon Vinegared vegetables Dessert Milk	Hamburger on bun with cheese Macaroni salad Northern beans Mixed fruit Milk
Other Notes
Dessert was actually a cream-filled strawberry daifuku (mochi, or pounded rice). Delicious. Also, if you deep-fry salmon, it’s a lot easier to eat the skin.