Nishokudon

Nishokudon is a very popular dish in Japan. A favorite at the family table, it's also served in many Japanese restaurants, especially at lunchtime. Toppings of Japanese-style scrambled eggs and of soboro (finely chopped cooked meat; here, pork) are added onto a bowl of white rice, for an attractive color contrast.
In Japanese, nishoku means "two colors", referring to the two different colors (i.e., of eggs and pork) that are used. Don stands for donburi (a type of rice bowl), and indicates white rice topped with vegetables, eggs, meat or fish.
You can easily make sanshokudon (a bowl of white rice with three colors). Top the rice with denbu (a kind of tsukudani , or food boiled in soy sauce, made from small pieces of fish) for a pink color and cooked green beans for green.
Soboro will keep in the refrigerator for almost a week, so you can make a lot of at one time and make other dishes with it later. For example, heat it in a microwave, top it with sliced white leek, and rolling it up with a lettuce leaf. If you cook soboro with tofu, you can very easily make mapo tofu (originally a Chinese dish).
Chili bean sauce (tobanjan) is used in making soboro. You can buy it in Chinatown. This spice is very hot, so be careful not to put in too much.

Written by Mami Miyagawa
A member of TranNet and freelance translator based in Paris

♦ INGREDIENTS
(4 servings)
T   = tablespoon
t   = teaspoon

Soboro
300 g  minced cooked pork
1/2    stem of white leek, chopped thinly
1 t    fresh ginger, grated
1      clove of garlic, grated

Sauce for soboro
3 T   red miso paste
2 T   soy sauce
2 T   sake
1 T   sugar
2t − 1T  chili bean sauce (tobanjan), according to taste
1/2 T   vegetable oil

♦ How to make Soboro
1.  Mix all the ingredients for the sauce.
2. Heat 1/2 T of vegetable oil in a pan and cook the white leek, ginger and garlic at medium heat.
3. Add minced pork and mix all with a wooden spatula until crumbled.
4. Add sauce and simmer for one or two minutes.

Japanese-style scrambled eggs
3     eggs
1 T   sugar
1 T   sake
1/2 t  salt

♦ How to make Japanese-style scrambled eggs
1. Mix all the ingredients well.
2. Heat 1 T of vegetable oil in a pan at medium heat. Pour the mixture into the pan.
3. Cook for several seconds, mixing the ingredients with cooking chopsticks. Be careful not to overcook.

♦ How to make Nishokudon
Top a bowl of white rice with soboro and Japanese-style scrambled eggs. Serve immediately.

Fish species are written using a variety of kanji. Each epecies has its own kanji name. It's said that not all such kanji names originated in China: many were created in Japan. Let's study the origins and meanings of fish names.