INGREDIENTS

45ml gin
15ml sake rice wine
1 green olive
ice

PREPARATION
Put gin, sake, and ice into a mixing glass. Stir well. Pour into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a green olive.
Makes 1 serving.

INGREDIENTS

45 ml Sake Rice Wine
15 ml Lime Juice
Some Ice

PREPARATION
Put a couple of ice in a glass. Pour sake and lime juice into the glass. Stir well.
Makes 1 serving.

Japanese tea usually indicates Green Tea. Fresh green tea leaves are steamed, dried, rolled, and blended. There are many kinds of green tea: gyokuro, sencha, macha, genmaicha, bancha, and more.

Sencha is one of the most popular green tea in Japan. It is raised in the sun. Shincha indicates sencha green tea which is harvested in the early season. Gyokuro is the most superior green tea which has sweet flavor. It is raised in the shade. Macha is green tea powder, which is made from green tea leaves raised in the shade. The tea leaves are steamed, dried, and grounded into powder. Houjicha is made by roasting green tea leaves. It contains little caffein or tannin. Genmaicha is blended tea of green tea leaves and popped rice.

Bancha is low grade green tea which is made from tea leaves picked in late summer.

To brew green tea, using a Japanese teapot called kyusu is the best. Basically put green tea leaves in the pot and pour some hot water. Then, cover the lid and wait for a while before serving green tea into individual tea cups called yunomi which has no handles. When serving green tea, make sure not to leave any tea in the tea pot. You may brew green tea a few times from the same tea leaves.

To brew tasty green tea, water temperature is important. Change the temperature depending on the kind of green tea you are drinking. Cool boiling water in a tea pot or tea cups before pouring over tea leaves.

When brewing sencha green tea, use 160F degree hot water and brew about one minute in a tea pot. To brew gyokuro green tea, use 110F degree hot water and brew about two minutes. To brew hojicha, genmaicha, and bancha, use boiling water and brew just 15-20 seconds.

To drink macha green tea, shift 1 tsp of maccha green tea powder in a large tea cup and add 1/4 cup of 160F degree hot water in it, then stir quickly with a bamboo tea whisk.

Pouring hot sencha green tea over some ice in a cup makes iced green tea. Enjoy green tea!

Source: About.com

INGREDIENTS
Sushi Rice, see recipe
3 sheets nori seaweed
Wasabi paste

SUGGESTED FILLINGS
Cucumber, cut into thin strips
4 ounces smoked salmon
2 ounces salmon roe
8 medium prawns
Omelet Strip, recipe follows

OMELET STRIP
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 pinch salt
Oil

DIRECTIONS
Toast the nori sheets by holding directly over a medium low flame and passing it back and forth quickly till slightly crispy.

Place a nori sheet on a bamboo rolling mat about 1/2 inch from end of mat facing you.

Spread a small amount of wasabi paste over the nori. Wet hands and spread rice on the nori in a layer about 1/2 inch thick leaving a 1/2 inch border at the near and far end.

Make a long indentation along the centre of the rice and lay some filling in the trench.

Roll the mat tightly away from you making sure that the mat stays on top of the roll and doesn’t get rolled into it.

Cut the roll crosswise with a sharp damp knife and serve with soy sauce, pickled ginger and a small amount of wasabi paste on the side.

Omelet Strip:
Mix 1 egg,1/2 teaspoon. sugar,a pinch of salt lightly with a fork. Oil a frying pan, heat and add egg mixture. Tilt to spread the egg thinly and cook till set. Remove to a plate and let set. Roll up and cut into 1/4 inch wide strips.

During the Edo period, “sushi” refered to pickled fish conserved in vinegar. Nowadays sushi can be defined as a dish containing rice which has been prepared with sushi vinegar. There are many different types of sushi. Some popular ones are:

	Nigiri Small rice balls with fish, etc. on top. There are countless varieties of nigirizushi, some of the most common ones being tuna, shrimp, eel, squid, octopus and fried egg.
	Gunkan Small cups made of sushi rice and dried seaweed filled with seafood, etc. There are countless varieties of gunkanzushi, some of the most common ones being sea urchin and various kinds of fish eggs.
	Norimaki Sushi rice and seafood, etc. rolled in dried seaweed sheets. There are countless varieties of sushi rolls differing in ingredients and thickness. Sushi rolls prepared “inside out” are very popular outside of Japan, but rarely found in Japan.
	Temaki Temakizushi (literally: hand rolls) are cones made of nori seaweed and filled with sushi rice, seafood and vegetables.
	Oshizushi Oshizushi is pressed sushi, in which the fish is pressed onto the sushi rice in a wooden box. The picture shows trout oshizushi in form of a popular ekiben (train station lunch box).
	Inari Inarizushi is a simple and inexpensive type of sushi, in which sushi rice is filled into aburaage (deep fried tofu) bags.
	Chirashi Chirashizushi is a dish in which seafood, mushroom and vegetables are spread over sushi rice.

Source: Japan Guide