For those of you who love sushi but always worry about being caught in some tragic faux pas, Japan Culture Lab has come to the rescue. Proper manners while eating at a sushi-ya sushi bar is serious matter so you may want to take notes while viewing their free eight minute video tutorial.

When I was growing up mom never once taught us the correct etiquette for pouring beer so I found the ‘Samurai Way’ to be quite an eye opener.

[If the video is missing I apologize, it means that Youtube is down for maintenance, or the video has been removed.]

Hidden Passion by Princess

Modern Trio by Princess

Essence of Spring by Princess

Blushing Sorbet by Princess

Flaming Pillow by Tokyo Ayano

Slick Pink by Kemular

Space Odyssey from Sakamencho

For more mouth-watering imagery visit Alde’s Japanese Sweets, Emily’s wagashi making demo by Minamoto Kitchoan, or Katsuzin13′s gallery of wagashi.

(101 Ways to Play With Your Food, ideas #31 to 40)

Oh little hanamidango, so cute and plump…what better way to celebrate cherry blossom season!

These tiny sweets take the art of beautiful confection obsession to a whole new level. Flickr member jam343 shares a slideshow of some awe inspiring treats that he made while Blogger Lovescool came up with her own daifuku recipe. Her favorite NY shop Minamoto Kitchoan has a good wagashi faq.

The intense sweet flavors of these little desserts are meant to be paired with a slightly bitter tea, such as matcha, and are traditionally served during a Japanese tea ceremony.

Wagashi come in many flavors and shapes and often take inspiration from nature. One type (called higashi) is made from a glutinous rice flour, sugar and starch mixture and then pressed in molds to form dry sweets. My favorite Ping Mag design writers recently found a market stall in Kyoto selling vintage candy molds, including a large number of flowers and leaves.

If you live near San Francisco you can sign up for a wagashi workshop. The Urasenke tea practitioners association has collected a large number of wagashi recipes which you can view online. Including… Koshian (sweet bean paste), plum shaped Aoume, chrysanthemum like Kiku, and space age Ajisai kinton.

You can find moree recipes on Egullet as well as here, and another great list here (includes a recipe for kingyoko kan jelly wagashi).

Toraya is Japan’s oldest confectionary company, providing the Imperial Court with many exclusive sweets. Journalist Hilary Hinds Kitasei was lucky enough to take a class with their master chefs. Her first lesson of the day was “laboriously boiling beans at exactly 50 degrees Centigrade but no higher… straining, re-boiling, and finally squeezing out all of the liquid. Then sugar is added, no less than 60 percent of the beans by weight.”

Clearly, Toraya chefs understand that to create a masterpiece the artist must know their medium.

So a recent dinner invitation from our friend Anthony and his lovely Japanese wife Akane had me excitedly bouncing around for days.

We had gone out to a shabu shabu restaurant earlier in the year and talked about topping that experience with a home style meal. Their purchase of an electric nabe pot clinched the deal…and they put together an amazing stew featuring a great selection of fresg veggies (shitake mushrooms anyone?) along with tofu, noodles, chicken, and ginger seasoned turkey meatballs. Akane had all the ingredients prepared by the time we arrived, including adding a seasoned broth to the nabe pot.

Quick nabe broth recipe… 2 quarts dashi, 1/2 cup soy sauce, and several tablespoons mirin rice wine. You can also add edible kelp such as kombu to taste.

When the nabe pot slowly emptied Akane deftly added a some raw whisked eggs, some precooked rice, a bit of crushed nori, and voila…we had a second entirely different savory dish!

Nabemono style meals are traditionally served during the Winter time, and we found out why as the windows quickly began to steam up. Shabu shabu and other one-pot Japanese meals like sukiyaki are typically cooked on the table with a portable gas burner, and even with an electric pot the boiling broth can heat up a room in no time. It’s a great way to share dinner with friends as it’s actually quite simply (the host doesn’t have to spend any time sweating over a hot stove) and often becomes the entertainment as guests can eat right from the pot with their chopsticks.

Here are some more shabu shabu style recipes…Blogger Tea And Cookies shares her “How to survive a Japanese Winter” recipes for basic vegetable nabe, and ginger chicken balls. I also found Chanko Nabe wich is a special hearty stew eaten by sumo wrestlers, and here’s a recipe for Beef Shabu Shabu.

To cook nabe at home you’ll need a portable butane stove or hot plate, with a ceramic casserole dish or cast iron nabe pot (or an electric grill pot). These are fairly affordable and easy to find in any Asian shopping district at the restaurant supply shops. Then just pair your favorite vegetables with some thin sliced meats and provide each guest with their own bowl of dipping sauce like ponzu. You can also serve rice, tofu, and noodles (glass noodles are perfect), then enjoy!

I can’t wait for our next nabe meal so I can try peppered tuna and crab legs…mmmmm.

1. Removing Potatoes Skins with a Twist
You can use this trick for lots of foods like tomatoes or peaches. Just be sure to score an entire line around the fruit or veggie before boiling, then drop into an ice bath afterwards.

2. The Two Second Method for Peeling Shrimp
It’s so much fun, everyone’s doing it! Just be sure to bring your scissors.

3. A Perfect Cuppa Hot Cocoa
Whenever you want to dissolve powder in a liquid the trick is to stir back and forth in a line, not a circle!

4. No Fuss Fish Cleaning
Apparently rubber spatulas have the perfect edge for removing fish scales. Of course you can always ask the butcher at the meat counter to do it for you.

5. Keeping Your Potstickers From Sticking
Oil the pan after it’s gotten hot, then add your gyoza. If you steam them with water or stock you’ll want to pour that off and cook just a bit longer.

6. Pulling Whole Crab from the Shell
All of you ReadyMade fans are going to love this one…besides the little sound effects the crab meat makes when it comes out of the shell are, hmmmm…mouth-watering?