Dec 17, 2024
Okazu and You
This week we were told that our child needed to bring Okazu to school for lunch on a day when rice was being prepared via a traditional method.
When I asked my husband what this word meant, he only said things that go with rice. When I suggested furikake he said no.
He failed to elaborate further and eventually we wind up going to the store to get a better picture of what exactly we needed. Our kid picked a few things and we slept together a nice looking little vento box for her the next morning. Apparently this is a great word for what they consider to be a main dish or again the kinds of things you eat with rice. Specifically we used the kinds of little bento box additionals you can find in the freezer section of most grocery stores.
4 Comments
TonetoEdo
on Dec 17
I struggled with this idea at first, too. Many bento box lunches later, I prepare a variety okazu for meals at home and bento boxes. You can search TtoE for my recipes and fusion food. I wrote about okazu a while ago - https://www.city-cost.com/blogs/TonetoEdo/GQKPm-food_noda_shi_chiba
JTsu
on Dec 18
@TonetoEdo Nice! I guess I should have checked on here. I was just so flummoxed by the lack of definition that I couldn't even remember the word.
TonetoEdo
on Dec 19
@JTsu I'm happy to be of help! I post occasionally about TtoE cooking, sometimes about okazu I've prepared.
helloalissa
on Jan 7
Hah I just asked my husband what's the difference between sozai and okazu. He had a really hard time explaining what was different. The way your husband described it as things that go with rice helps me understand. I've usually heard "gohan no tomo" so I didn't think there was another word for that.