Featured

Miso

We try “Japan’s best-selling miso soup” and it melts the cold in our bones

A visit to the mushroom kingdom to see if 600,000 fans could possibly be wrong, and also to eat some amazing ramen.

Read More

We make delicious, low(er)-calorie Japanese-style pizza with fried tofu and miso!【Sora Kitchen】

In our quest to find a cheese-laden pizza we can eat guilt-free, we’ve come across a Japanese-style concoction that’s surprisingly delicious.

Read More

Japanese company produces organic miso powder in collaboration with model Miranda Kerr【Video】

The former Victoria’s Secret model is so popular in Japan that she even has a say in the country’s miso production.

Read More

Chocolate to Put on Rice – The crazy condiment from Japan for when white rice is just too plain

Putting soy sauce on white rice is a major faux pas in Japan, but now there’s a flavorful alternative.

Read More


Feeling tired? Get an energy boost with this new Miso Ginger Cup Noodle from Nissin!

What’s so special about this Cup Noodle? Well, you can have it instead of an energy drink!

Read More

Beautiful, heartwarming anime short is also a commercial for miso 【Video】

Brief glimpse at multigenerational family has viewers reaching for their tissues and chopsticks.

Read More

The ultimate hangover cure! Hot canned miso soup, packed with the power of 70 clams

One of the most wonderful things about a Japanese winter is the abundance of hot drinks that become available at convenience stores and vending machines on street corners. There’s nothing quite like popping a coin into a machine on a freezing cold night or while making your way to work, only to have a piping hot can delivered into your frozen palms; it’s an experience that’s almost as satisfying as actually drinking the hot beverage and warming yourself from the inside out!

Stumbling across a good hot soup other than corn potage when scouring the drinks display is always a rare bonus and now that’s something we can look forward to, especially after a night of drinking, with the new canned miso soup from Nagatanien. Filled with the power of ornithine, an amino acid abundant in clams, this is a traditional hangover remedy from Japan, now packed in a can!

Read More

300 yen gets you all-you-can-apply Chanel makeup at unusual Tokyo lounge for women

Makeup is big business in Japan, where there’s almost a cultural obsession with the stuff. But the demand for makeup and beauty products also means, through the magic of capitalism, that it also tends to be a lot more expensive out here than in, say, the US. I’ve personally never purchased or used makeup, outside of, obviously, those Halloween Rocky Horror Picture Show events, so I couldn’t tell you exactly how much the average woman in Japan spends on makeup, but it’s gotta be somewhere in the ballpark of, hmm, approximately their entire paycheck every month.

Luckily, there appears to be a “lounge” in Tokyo’s Shinjuku neighborhood that is sympathetic to the thorough wallet-denting women must endure in the pursuit of beauty, offering all-you-can-apply Chanel makeup at just 300 yen (US$2.50) an hour. A service with “all-you-can-(verb)” in the description? You bet we went to check it out!

Read More

10 distinctly Japanese comfort foods

“Comfort food” is traditional cooking that tends to have a nostalgic or sentimental connection, often one related to family or childhood: the grilled cheese sandwiches your mother used to make; the thought of your grandmother’s bread pudding makes your mouth water; the way the whole house would be filled with the intoxicating aroma of roasted turkey or ham at Christmas? Because of such memories, these foods comfort us, especially when we’re longing for home or feeling especially vulnerable.

Not surprisingly, the sentimental Japanese have their own comfort foods. While you might think they’d be waxing over the octopus tentacles of home, very few of the dishes we’re about to talk about have much to do with seafood. Many Japanese comfort foods have a rice connection and may even center around the unique relationship between mothers or wives and their role in family food preparation. And in Japan, make no mistake about it–her kitchen rules!

Read More

The secret ingredient to miso soup? Rock music!

Let’s get this out of the way first: Miso soup is delicious. It’s a great addition to nearly any meal, but we have to admit that it is pretty…basic, in every sense of the word. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with that! Basic doesn’t mean bad, though we imagine it presents a bit of a marketing problem–how do you differentiate one brand of miso soup from another? If you deviate from the tried-and-true recipe too much, it’s just not miso soup anymore!

Well, it looks like Marukome, one of Japan’s top miso paste producers, has found a way: They’ve played loud, fast, and raw rock music for their newest instant miso soup–right in the miso paste factory !

Read More

Give your pancakes a major flavor boost with one secret ingredient: fermented soybeans

The humble pancake is a beloved food for both its deliciousness and how easy it is to make. It’s also a highly versatile food, suitable for either a sweet snack with powdered sugar, strawberries and syrup, or a savory dish served with chicken and lettuce.

Now, there appears to be a rumor among pancake aficionados in Japan that with one simple addition to the pancake mix it is possible to boost the flavor level to that of a luxury hotel or restaurant. That ingredient is none other than the typical Japanese seasoning made from fermented soybeans: miso.

Read More

Want your cooking to taste like world-famous chef Nobu’s? Here’s the seasoning you need

One of the few Japanese restaurateurs to gain international fame and popularity is Nobuyuki Matsuhisa. Better known by his professional moniker Nobu, the Saitama-born chef began his culinary career in Tokyo, before leaving Japan to open restaurants in Peru, Argentina, and the U.S.

Being so far away from the birthplace of Japanese cuisine, though, meant Nobu had to come up with new recipes and flavors that would suit the palates of his non-Japanese clientele. This often meant finding roles for locally available ingredients, but in one case, Nobu took things a step further by developing one of his own: miso powder.

Read More

We try surprisingly delicious Miso Curry Milk Ramen in Aomori

Locally owned ramen shops can be found spread out all across Japan. In fact, some of the best flavors aren’t found at the big chain restaurants, but at the hole-in-the-wall shops that you might never even notice without a proper introduction. Hence, we’d like to make it our duty to tell you about an amazing, little ramen joint in Aomori Prefecture, which is famous for its miso flavored curry milk ramen.

When we at RocketNews24 first heard about this place, we couldn’t imagine how so many different flavors could possibly achieve good balance within a single bowl of noodles, so we sent one of our adventurous Japanese reporters, Mami Kuroi, to try it out. Here’s what she had to say about the experience.

Read More