The secrets of Japanese supermarket music and life-saving green tea, plus how to make the King of Curries and furoshiki-style sandwiches.

We don’t care if it makes us gluttons or gourmands, we LOVE to eat. We’re not alone in that attitude either in Japan, where “foodie” is the default mindset for most of the population, and here are 10 stories that had our hearts racing and mouths watering in 2021, starting with food and moving on to cooking.

Top food stories of 2021

● The crazy ordeal of putting together Japan’s 366-piece sushi plastic model kit【Photos】

Japanese cuisines is supposed to be a feast for the eyes, so what truer way to follow that philosophy than by assembling a nigiri sushi model where every grain of rice is its own piece?

● We try a rotating sushi restaurant in New Delhi, are surprised to find no rotating sushi

The surprises kept coming at this Indian kaitzushi restaurant, even if no sushi was coming down the conveyor belt.

● Here’s why Japanese supermarkets play “cheap” background music all day, according to Twitter

The low-budget music you’ll hear while grocery shopping in Japan isn’t because the stores are trying to save money by not paying royalties, this theory says.

● Why do Japanese hot spring inns give you tea and sweets at check-in? For your own safety

If you’re always on the lookout for a reason to eat sweets, here’s one to remember: they just might save your life.

● Should you add wasabi to your soy sauce at a sushi restaurant?

Wasabi’s intense spiciness makes it a love-it-or-hate-it condiment, but even in the love-it camp, some people don’t love it when it’s used like this.

Top cooking stories of 2021

● How to turn McDonald’s chicken nuggets into tasty katsudon in five minutes【SoraKitchen】

One of our favorite things to do in the SoraKitchen is use fast food as the base ingredients to make something even better, and this was one of our greatest upgrades ever.

● We mixed 43 different kinds of Japanese curry together to make The King of Curries

When cooking curry at home, most people just use one kind, and curry connoisseurs might mix two or even three types. But when you’re a bunch of full-on curry maniacs like we are, you grab every variety they’ve got on the supermarket shelf, toss them all in the pot together, and see (and taste) what happens.

● Mr. Sato’s guide to easy-peasy no-bake chocolate mousse, courtesy of Kaldi import stores

Did you finish all your katsudon and curry? OK, then it’s time to treat yourself to some wonderfully wiggly chocolate mousse (as long as you’ve got some yogurt in the fridge)!

● How to turn your leftover instant ramen broth into delicious chawanmushi Japanese egg custard

The next time you’re feeling sad that you’ve eaten your last noodle from your cup of instant ramen, remember this ray of hope: You’ve got a whole other Japanese dish you can enjoy with just a few simple steps!

● We’ve been doing it wrong – Japanese genius shows us how we should all be making sandwiches【Pics】

Our life is now divided into two parts: the part before we knew to use the furoshiki method when making sandwiches, and the enlightened joy we live in now.

Top image: Pakutaso
Insert images: SoraNews24, Free Materials, Pakutaso, SoraNews24
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