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Japanese Homecooking Trivia Quiz

What the Japanese eat in the privacy of their own kitchens. Not a California roll in sight!

A multiple-choice quiz by wajo. Estimated time: 7 mins.

Author
wajo

Time
7 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
109,173

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
15

Difficulty
Difficult

Avg Score
7 / 15

Plays
1775

Awards
Top 20% Quiz

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 15

1. Sukiyaki is the most well-known example of a 'nabemono' (lit. pot thing), where all the meal is cooked at the table in a communal pot. Which of the following is not a nabemono? Hint

chirinabe

yakitori

mizutaki

shabu-shabu

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Question 2 of 15

2. Which of these foods are you most likely to be offered for lunch on a hot, humid day in August? Hint

ozoni

matsutake

takenoko gohan

somen noodles

3. Yakisoba (stir-fried noodles) is an example of an everyday Japanese meal which you won't usually find in Japanese cookbooks because it is regarded as a Chinese dish. Apart from its Chinese origin, what makes yakisoba different from other 'soba' dishes?
Hint

It's only eaten for breakfast

It has a hot chilli flavour

The soba noodles are unusually thick like udon noodles

It's not actually made from soba noodles

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Question 4 of 15

4. What is 'ochazuke'? Hint

iced green tea

pickles eaten at the end of a meal with green tea

rice with green tea poured over it

sweets to accompany green tea

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Question 5 of 15

5. Which of these vegetables are you least likely to find on your local supermarket shelf in rural Japan? (you can probably find anything in the big cities!) Hint

zucchinis/courgettes

eggplants/aubergines

potatoes

cabbages

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Question 6 of 15

6. We think of Japanese traditionally eating bowls of steaming white rice at every meal, but in less affluent times the rice was often mixed - or completely substituted - with which grain? Hint

millet

oats

corn/maize

buckwheat

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Question 7 of 15

7. Many Japanese housewives are up early every morning preparing
'obento' lunchboxes for their family. Simple rice-balls (often actually triangles),usually wrapped in nori, are an obento staple. What are they called?

Answer: (Two alternative answers - both seven letters starting with o.)

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Question 8 of 15

8. What are the main ingredients of 'nikujaga'? Hint

fish and rice

chicken and udon noodles

pork and shiitake mushrooms

beef and potatoes

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Question 9 of 15

9. What do chawanmushi and tamago-dofu have in common? Hint

They're both chicken dishes

They're both beef dishes

They're both tofu dishes

They're both egg dishes

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Question 10 of 15

10. All your images of refined, sophisticated Japanese cuisine are destroyed when you first encounter 'omuraisu'! What is it? Hint

left-over rice mixed with egg and poached in soy sauce

a thin omelette filled with seasoned rice and topped with ketchup

a frittata of leftovers served in miso soup

an omelette of fish offal served on rice for breakfast

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Question 11 of 15

11. Who in the family eats 'rinyushoku'? Hint

babies

expectant mothers

the sick and very elderly

newlyweds

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Question 12 of 15

12. A 'donburi' dish is a bowl of white rice with various toppings covered with sauce. 'Gyudon', for example is beef on rice and 'tendon' is tempura on rice with a sauce over the top. 'Oyako donburi' means 'parent and child donburi'. What are the main ingredients of this very common dish? Hint

chicken and egg

pork and pork offal

salmon and salmon roe

cod and cod roe

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Question 13 of 15

13. This dish is a popular winter nabemono and is also traditionally sold by street vendors. Various ingredients such as hard-boiled eggs, daikon radish, potatoes, deep-fried tofu and various types of fish paste dumplings are simmered in stock and eaten with mustard. What is it called? Hint

oden

donburi

udon

omochi

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Question 14 of 15

14. When does the family eat 'osechi-ryori'? Hint

New Year

funerals

weddings

O-bon festival

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Question 15 of 15

15. The final question is a little unrelated but a tribute to the women who are usually responsible for doing all this cooking! Which of the following is not a Japanese word for 'wife'? Hint

oyomesan

tsuma

okusan

okaasan

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Sukiyaki is the most well-known example of a 'nabemono' (lit. pot thing), where all the meal is cooked at the table in a communal pot. Which of the following is not a nabemono?

Answer: yakitori

Yakitori are grilled chicken kebabs. Mizutaki is a chicken dish, chirinabe is seafood and shabu-shabu is thin slices of raw beef dipped in the pot.

2. Which of these foods are you most likely to be offered for lunch on a hot, humid day in August?

Answer: somen noodles

Thin somen noodles are light summer fare typically served on a bed of ice. Ozoni is a soup with sticky mochi rice cakes in it eaten at New Year (winter in Japan). Takenoko gohan is rice cooked with bamboo shoots, best eaten in Spring when the shoots are fresh. Matsutake are the incredibly expensive 'pine mushrooms' only available for a short season in autumn.

Answer: It's not actually made from soba noodles

Yakisoba is made with wheat noodles, usually sir-fried with pork,cabbage,other vegetables and a thick sauce. Ordinary soba noodles used, for example, in zaru-soba are brown buckwheat noodles.

4. What is 'ochazuke'?

Answer: rice with green tea poured over it

The rice in ochazuke is usually topped with some dried fish, seaweed etc before the tea is poured over it. Alternatively you can buy commercial dried ochazuke mixes to sprinkle on the rice first.

5. Which of these vegetables are you least likely to find on your local supermarket shelf in rural Japan? (you can probably find anything in the big cities!)

Answer: zucchinis/courgettes

Zucchinis were one thing I missed when I first went to Japan. The other vegetables are all very common.

6. We think of Japanese traditionally eating bowls of steaming white rice at every meal, but in less affluent times the rice was often mixed - or completely substituted - with which grain?

Answer: millet

If, like me, you first went to Japan at the height of the 'bubble economy' in the 1980s it's hard to imagine that much of the population was living in third-world conditions only a generation earlier!

7. Many Japanese housewives are up early every morning preparing 'obento' lunchboxes for their family. Simple rice-balls (often actually triangles),usually wrapped in nori, are an obento staple. What are they called?

Answer: onigiri

Onigiri (also called musubi or omusubi) are the sandwiches of Japan! After the terrible Kobe earthquake in 1995, volunteers made thousands to feed the survivors.

8. What are the main ingredients of 'nikujaga'?

Answer: beef and potatoes

'Niku' means meat and 'Jaga' is short for 'jagaimo' (potato). This is a simple fairly sweet stew-like dish. Other vegetable are usually added as well.

9. What do chawanmushi and tamago-dofu have in common?

Answer: They're both egg dishes

Chawanmushi is a slightly soupy, savoury custard with pieces ofseafood, chicken, mushrooms etc in it which is steamed in a special lidded cup and eaten with a spoon. Tamago-dofu (lit. egg tofu) is also a steamed dish. It is the consistency of silk tofu, but is made from eggs and has no tofu in it at all.

10. All your images of refined, sophisticated Japanese cuisine are destroyed when you first encounter 'omuraisu'! What is it?

Answer: a thin omelette filled with seasoned rice and topped with ketchup

I made the other dishes up, but in my opinion they wouldn't be much less appertizing than the real thing! I guess lots of Japanese must like omuraisu though because its fairly common fare.

11. Who in the family eats 'rinyushoku'?

Answer: babies

Rinyushoku is literally 'separate milk food' or 'weaning food'. The rinyushoku staple is 'okayu', soft, watery rice with perhaps a little flavour added.

Answer: chicken and egg

The eggs are added while still a bit soft and the hot rice finishes cooking them.

Answer: oden

Definitely not haute cuisine, but very tasty, very filling and very warming! In winter the local supermarket will probably have a section devoted to oden ingredients.

14. When does the family eat 'osechi-ryori'?

Answer: New Year

Traditionally, just before New Year's eve the women of the family get together to make stacked boxes of special celebratory food to be eaten over the New Year period. These days you can order your sechi-ryori from hotels, large restaurants and department stores.

15. The final question is a little unrelated but a tribute to the women who are usually responsible for doing all this cooking! Which of the following is not a Japanese word for 'wife'?

Answer: okaasan

Okaasan means mother, and it is in that role also that Japanese women traditionally spend a lot of time in the kitchen! Tsuma is a fairly neutral word for wife. Okusan is the most commonly heard word and means the person in the inner rooms of the house. Oyomesan means bride but is often used long after the honeymoon is over.

Source: Author wajo

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Bruyere before going online.
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