Our Favorite Anime Dishes You Can Make At Home
Have you ever finished a Ghibli film or Food Wars! episode and realized you’re drooling?
We know we have!
Anime food always looks so delicious, even dishes like curry, served in the new Pokémon Sword and Shield, or sandwiches almost look more delectable than real life when rendered in an anime!
But if you’ve ever tried to re-create one of these anime dishes at home, you’ll know that ‘anime cooking’ is not so easy!
For a start, some of the Japanese ingredients are difficult to find outside of Japan. Also, not all of us have the cooking skills of a professional anime chef!
Never fear, though, not all anime food is like this.
We’ve found three tried-and-tested recipes taken from popular anime series that you can make yourself at home.
Psst...if the extent of your cooking skills is boiling water (no shame in that!) then check out our Ramen Pack!
1. Salmon Cooked in Foil (Today’s Menu for Emiya Family)
Today’s Menu for Emiya Family (Emiya-san Chi no Kyou no Gohan), a spin-off series of the popular Fate franchise, and only covers the main character cooking things.
Every episode showcases a new recipe that may sometimes cover Japanese traditions (like Hina Matsuri on Girl’s Day) or seasonal ingredients like bamboo shoots. The recipes showcased here are actually doable in real life and have been tested by a food analyst!
Our blog contributor Sam favors the salmon cooked in foil recipe, from Episode 2, which features the Irish hero Cu Chulainn. The ingredients (salmon, butter and mushrooms) are easy to find and the process is beginner-friendly.
If you have trouble finding ingredients like mirin (Japanese cooking wine), wasabi or Japanese mayo, use Google to find suitable alternatives or check your local Asian grocery store.
The recipe takes around half an hour to complete, and is an awesome dinner for one or to share with friends.
Our fearless blog writer, Sam, attempts to re-create the dish at home! Source: @kairanshire
2. Transforming Furikake Rice (Food Wars! / Shokugeki no Souma)
Shokugeki no Souma, also known as Food Wars!, is an anime following Yukihira Souma’s journey to become a top chef at the Totsuki Culinary Academy. He makes a lot of interesting dishes like Mapo Tofu and Gyudon, as well as other culinary tricks like a Souffle Omelette and “Just Kidding!” Faux Roast Pork.
In our article about the Fall Anime Season, we talked about how delicious some of Souma’s cooking looked and how it makes us extremely hungry whenever we sit down to watch the show! Luckily, one of his innovative dishes is actually possible to make at home!
Souma’s Transforming Furikake Gohan ("rice with transforming seasoning") from Episode 2: God’s Tongue, is a simple combination of rice and toppings, but with a twist - a meaty and delectable jelly broth that melts with the heat of the rice.
Though this may take a little more effort than the last dish, the end result of seeing all the gelatinous chicken broth melt over the rice is definitely worth it.
Not only is this a cool visual treat, but the combination of flavours makes this simple dish sure to impress your friends or family.
3. Bacon and Egg Breakfast (Howl’s Moving Castle)
While the idea of cooking bacon and eggs seems to be a bit too normal, there’s something about food from Studio Ghibli movies that always gets our mouths watering.
The magic of something as simple as bacon and eggs means that there’s always a way to step it up and make it taste just as good as it looks in the anime film.
YouTuber Binging With Babish shows off a way to make homemade bacon that really elevates this dish to the next level - by curing his own pork belly!
While this dish might require a loooot of effort in order to fully recreate and complete (especially without our own Calcifer to eat the eggshells) it definitely stands out as a breakfast fit for a prince!
The preparation for this dish may take a while, especially if you’re trying to recreate this with homemade bacon; but for a special occasion or just as a treat to yourself at the end of the week, this one is definitely something we recommend trying out at least once.
What food from anime gets your stomach grumbling?
It might not be as difficult to recreate as it seems!
Hopefully this will inspire you to try your hand at cooking up your own awesome dishes at home!
And if you prefer a more instant style of cooking, check out ZenPop's Japanese ramen subscription box. It's filled with 7 bowls of authentic Japanese noodles and all you have to do is add water!
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This blog was written by Sam: Sam is a university student interested in everything in otaku culture, from video games to anime. Growing up, she spent several hours in front of the TV watching mahou shoujo shows, and now binges entire seasons of anime within in a few hours. She loves to attend conventions in cosplay and always stops to take pictures of stray cats.
