What was this Japanese food?

Question

I went to a Japanese restaurant for dinner tonight, and they gave us this custard-like thing as a free appetizer I guess. It was whitish, had a few pieces of meat in it, and kinda had an egg-like flavor to it. What is it called?

Answer 1

It sounds like Chawanmushi. But the chawanmushi you had is not a typical chanwanmushi because it didn't have shitake mushrooms, ginko nuts, kamaboko (fish cake), shrimp, and mitsuba leaves. But in the US, many restaurants use very limited ingredients to make miso soup and also stuff like chawanmushi that's why the chawanmushi you had had a few pieces of chicken inside.

Anyway, I think what you had was chawanmushi. It kinda looks like pudding or flan in a way but it's actually chawanmushi.

Answer 2

Chawan Mushi or steamed egg custard. It's damn good and I like it for breakfast. Also, it's very easy to make =)

Ingredients: (for 4 servings)

3 eggs, 500cc dashi (ichiban-dashi), 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon usukuchi (lightly flavored) soy sauce, 50 g sasami chicken meat, 4 shrimps, 50 g shimeji mushrooms, 4 slices of kamaboko, half stalk of mitsuba (trefoil), yuzu (citron) peel.

Dashi (ichban-dashi)

Seafood preparation

Mushiki


preparation:

Making egg mixture

1. Break eggs in a large ball. Draw the letter Z on the bottom with the tip of the chopsticks, do not foam.
2. Little by little, add cooled dashi and then salt, soy sauce.
3. To improve texture, strain egg through a net.

Filling

1. Remove white sinewy tissue from sasami chicken meat. Cut into bite size pieces. Sprinkle with soy sauce.
2. Remove black vein from shrimps. Devine except for tail. (see "seafood preparation")
3. Remove roots of shimeji mushrooms, tear into easy to eat pieces.
4. Cut mitsuba (trefoil) into 3cm pieces.
5. Thinly slice peel of yuzu.

How to make:

1. Prepare 4 Chawan mushi serving cups. If serving cups with lids are not available, use tea cup covered with aluminum foil.
2. Divide fillings into 4 except for mitsuba and yuzu strips, neatly place filling and kamaboko slices in individual cups.
3. Pour in egg mixture.
4. Fill a double-boiler pan (mushiki) half full with water.
5. When water comes to a boil, place cups in to steam.
6. Cover with cheesecloth, place lid slightly off so that steam can escape.
7. Heat 1-2 minutes on a strong fire, reduce heat and cook for an additional 12-15 minutes. If the fire is too strong or if steamed too long, Chawan mushi becomes spongy, loses flavor and attractiveness.
8. Insert bamboo stick to check readiness. If clear liquid rises Chawan mushi is ready.
9. Take cups out of steamer. Top with mitsuba and yuzu, re-cover.
10. Chawan mushi is served chilled in summer, hot in winter.

Answer 3

Yes, i think it is Chawanmushi or a kind of steamed egg pudding.

How do you like it? It's easy to make.

yummi

Answer 4

It's called Chawanmushi.

Answer 5

chawan mushi. did it come in either a cup or a bowl? it's a kind of steamed egg with other stuff inside and usually comes in a cup or small bowl.

Answer 6

Best bet is to ask them what you describe could be anythign in Japanese food,
if you had a pic of it it would help tho.

Answer 7

If it was in a square slab, it could have been turnip cake. I think it's actually chinese, but when you described it, that's what I thought of.