給食だより

ナン　牛乳　キーマカレー

野菜ポテトサラダ　とちおとめヨーグルト

～Lunch Report By ALT～

Today is Keema curry and nan bread with potato salad and strawberry yogurt.  The potato salad was creamy and the big chunks of potato were delicious and there were nice flavors and textures from the ham bits and vegetables in it as well.  I like the nan since it is such a rarity in kyuushoku and a nice change of pace from always eating rice with curry.  Also, the keema curry has a nice indian style spice to it which is delicious.  I try my best to always eat the curry only using and nan and not the spoon, but it is difficult!  I love the flavors and paired with the nan is it perfect.  I really think that this is one of the regular kyushoku menus that really tastes like being at a restaurant! Finally the amazing tochiotome yogurt with pretty big bits of actual strawberry inside was great.  Very sweet and more creamy than usual.  We have been getting a lot of ‘Tochiotome’ style foods and desserts recently!  What a treat!

【節分献立】

ごはん　牛乳　いわしのごまみそ煮

白菜のおひたし　ぶた肉と大根の煮物　福豆

～Lunch Report By ALT～

Happy throwing beans day!  Today we have a nice salad, some pork and radish soup, fish and lucky beans.  The salad is a classic and I love the soft crunch with the smokey flavor of the katsuoboshi.  The pork and daikon soup was very flavorful and had a light sweetness and umami from the pork, carrots, and daikon.  It reminded me a little of sukiyaki or nikujaga. I might sound crazy, but I feel like I tasted a warm spice in the soup as well like cinnamon or something.  Today’s fish iwashi, which is known as pilchard or sardine in English, was pretty good.  It was cooked in a nice sweet miso sauce which made it go well with rice.  The fish itself had a small layer of fat on the outside of it which gave a little variety to its texture. Not bad at all.  The lucky beans packet was also a nice little snack after finishing the meal.  Very crunchy and a nice mix of sweetness and saltiness since there were beans, some small candied fish, and other goodies in there.  A nice lunch to celebrate the special occasion of setsubun today.

スタミナ丼　牛乳　えび団子スープ

～Lunch Report By ALT～

Happy February!  The first lunch of the month is stamina rice bowl and shrimp ball soup.  The ebidango soup is super good and I love the thin harusame noodles.  They are so light and add an interesting texture from the noodle while still being very juicy.  The flavor is light and salty but each shrimp ball explodes with flavor.  Such a great soup.  The stamina don was also excellent.  Very flavorful and packed with tons of meat as well.  A great meal to kick off the new month!  Thank you very much!

【全国学校給食週間】

はちみつパン　牛乳　メンチカツ

ブロッコリーサラダ　インド煮

～Lunch Report By ALT～

The final day of Kyushoku week brings indoni, menchi katsu, and broccoli salad with honey bread on the side.  I like this menu a lot.  The salad is delicious and the juicy broccoli is filled with creamy dressing and joined by yummy and sweet bursts of flavor from the corn.  The indoni is quite good and has lots of delicious flavors from Indian style foods and even has a little more spice than usual.  I am surprised by the satsumaage and quail eggs, but they are delicious as well.  I liked how there were many potatoes in it.  Today’s menchi kantsu is also excellent and super crunchy on the outside while still being juicy and meaty on the inside.  Although the katsu is salty and fried, and the honey bread is sweet, I still made a sandwich with them and it was very good.  Great lunch today!

【全国学校給食週間】

【とちぎ地産地消元気アップ・牛肉献立】

ごはん　牛乳　ハッシュドビーフ

じゃこサラダ　ぽんかん

～Lunch Report By ALT～

Day 4 of school lunch week brings fancy hashed beef on the menu!  The shako salad was pretty good and I enjoyed the aburaage strips and dressing especially.  The hashed beef was a delicious stew with great flavors from the meat.  The stew itself got tons of flavor from the tomato base and many vegetables inside of it as well.  It was hot and delicious and perfect with rice.  Very hearty and filling and supports my theory that all school stews are delicious.  Finally we also got a ‘ponkan’ which in English is a ‘ponkan orange’ or tangerine.  Basically a slightly different mikan.  They were served very cold and were delicious and sweet after the stew.  Great lunch and certainly a top 10 for sure!  School lunch week is unbeatable! Gochisousamadeshita!

【全国学校給食週間】

米粉パン　とちおとめジャム　牛乳

いも入り焼きそば　大根とツナのサラダ

～Lunch Report By ALT～

Day three of school lunch week!  Today is yakisoba with potatoes, salad with tuna, and bread with jam.  Lots of ‘with’s’ today!  The salad was excellent as always with its unique mix of tangy dressing and tuna flavor.  Of course I used some of the bread to soak up the dressing.  The yakisoba was good and the potatoes inside it gave it a new texture compared to the noodles and normal ingredients.  It was good.  A member in the teacher’s room mentioned that potatoes in yakisoba is ‘soul food’ in Tochigi.  I think that is very interesting, and delicious too. The VP mentioned that potatoes in yakisoba is more a tradition in southern Tochigi.  I will have to visit those places and try it out!  Today we got a special tochiotome jam, but the teachers in the teachers room got tangerine jam instead!  It was will very delicious and perfect with the rice bread.  A wonderful lunch today!

【全国学校給食週間】

【地産地消：野口菜】

ごはん　牛乳　手作りとんカツ（ごまソース）

ボイルキャベツ　にこにこ汁

～Lunch Report By ALT～

Today is a another special menu day!  Handmade tonkatsu with soup and boiled cabbage.  The boiled cabbage was essentially a garnish for the katsu so I ate it quickly.  It was fairly sweet and crunchy.  The nikoniko soup was good, but the nameko gives it a slightly slimy texture.  The main event, tonkatsu.  Today’s katsu came with a nice big packet of special sesame sauce.  The katsu was very big and almost as large as you would get at a restaurant.  This is a real treat and it was still very crunchy and tender at the same time.  The sauce was basically the same as high quality tonkatsu sauce.  I didn’t taste the sesame flavor strongly, but there was certainly ground goma in the sauce.  It was fantastic.  What a treat today.  Another top 10 kyushoku with the huge delicious katsu. Gochisousamadeshita.

【全国学校給食週間】

【とちぎ地産地消元気アップ・水産物献立】

ごはん　牛乳　ヤシオマスのたまりじょうゆ焼き

いそ香り和え　キムチ入りとん汁　とちおとめアイス

～Lunch Report By ALT～

This is the first day of National School Lunch week here in Japan  I don’t know what that is but I imagine that all schools in Japan are eating the same basic school lunches? Like everyone gets the same basic menu but each prefecture adds a little special flare to it?  Today is also The Tochigi Genki up menu AND the aquatic menu as well.  It has three separate special names today!  I hope that its really good!  The Isokaoriae salad was delicious.  It means beach scent salad basically and I did get some sea side smells from the seaweed and sesame flavors when I was eating it.  It was great.  Next up was pork soup with kimchi.  It has a ton of flavor thanks to the kimchi and really fills you up.  I think this is where most of the genki up part of the menu comes from.  The soup went so well with the rice that I almost ate all of it, but I saved some for the sea trout.  The trout was meaty and delicious with a very light flavor which let the great flavor of the fish take center stage.  It was very delicious.  Finally the Tochiotome Strawberry icecream was tremendous.  It was mostly strawberry sherbert with a few perfectly balanced layers of ice cream which took it from a delicious dessert to something of legend.  No doubt the most delicious ice cream I have ever eaten with Kyushoku.  Today’s menu is the best we have eaten so far and I could imagine it remaining in the top 3 for a long time.  Great lunch today! Gochisousamadeshita!

ミルクパン　みかんジャム　牛乳

オムレツ　ポパイソテー　マカロニのクリーム煮

～Lunch Report By ALT～

Today is a wonderful day!  Macaroni stew!  I seriously love this stuff.  The ‘Popeye’ sautee was amazing.  Very delicious and the flavor of the ham with the spinach was buttery and nice.  I am surprised that Popeye is actually known in Japan since it is such an old cartoon.  Today’s omelet was good as well!  No cheese today, but it was filled with a nice tomato sauce which was perfect with the egg.  Of course I use my bread to clean the plate of the salad and spilled sauce from the omelet.  Today’s macaroni stew was amazing as always.  It has a very gentle flavor which allows the vegetables natural flavor to be easily tasted, especially the onions.  I ate it very quickly!  Finally the tangerine jelly and bread.  I saved half of my bread for the jelly and it was sweet and refreshing.  Enjoyed with milk it is a wonderful combination.  Fantastic lunch today and a top 10 for sure!  Gochisousama Deshita!

ごはん　牛乳　春巻

ハムとニラの和え物　ワンタンスープ

～Lunch Report By ALT～

Today is a Chinese menu.  The ham and nira salad was crunchy and filled with ham too.  The flavor from the nira and dressing gave it a zingy oniony flavor that was very delicious and refreshing.  I could eat a ton of it!  The wonton soup was very good too.  Nice and hot.  But I got way more Naruto slices than wontons in my bowl which was interesting.  Finally, I saved my favorite for last, the spring roll!  Today’s spring rolls were perfect.  Super crunchy, flavorful, and not too oily either which was very nice.  The taste of the filling and the wrapper is simply delicious and has a nice salty and savory flavor which makes me want to eat more and more.  Wonderful meal today!

ごはん　牛乳　さばのみそ煮

れんこんきんぴら　むらくも汁

～Lunch Report By ALT～

Today is a Japanese menu!  The Renkon kinpira is great.  Renkon is called lotus root in English and many people in America don’t eat it, but I think it is great.  The kinpira has a nice earthy and savory flavor with hints of sweetness here and there that make it a delight.  The Murakumo soup was nice.  In English, murakumo are “Gathering Clouds” and I understand the meaning since the eggs look a little like clouds in the soup.  The saba misoni was excellent. Maybe today’s best menu item with its nice flavorful meaty texture and the sweet delicious miso sauce on top.  Saba is mackerel in English.  It’s delicious and cooked perfectly I feel.  Not to mention a bit bigger than usual too which is a surprise.  Another excellent school lunch today!

チキンカレーライス　牛乳

海そうサラダ　ヨーグルト

～Lunch Report By ALT～

Today is chicken curry with rice, seagrass salad, and some yogurt.  A classic school lunch menu.  I like the seagrass salad very much and enjoy the sweetness from the corn and cabbage mixed with the slightly sour and tangy dressing.  The chicken curry was excellent and the spice level was quite nice.  It tasted spicier than usual and I enjoyed it quite a bit.  In winter I think that spicy curry is delicious.  Today’s yogurt was Yakult flavored and it has an interesting sweet and sourness which is unique.  Nice lunch today!  Also, I was unable to eat lunch yesterday but am bummed that I missed out on the oroshi hamburg and gobo salad.  I love gobo!

ごはん　牛乳　おろしハンバーグ

ごぼうサラダ　みそ汁

ミルクパン　マーシャルビーンズ　牛乳

きのこスパゲッティ　イタリアンサラダ　お米のババロア

～Lunch Report By ALT～

Today is another great menu. Pasta, salad,babaloa, and bread with MARSHALL BEANS!  The Italian salad is wonderful as always, but today I was very happy with how the salad looked.  The variety of red, pink, green, and white is very nice and reminds me of the Italian flag and is very bright and beautiful.  The mushroom spaghetti came with some seaweed flakes as a topping and that gave it a Japanese flare.  There was more than one type of mushroom in the pasta and it had a nice earthy flavor backed up by the onion and carrot slices.  I recommend using some of the bread to clean the salad bowl and pasta bowl and then eat it with the marshall beans to improve the beans to bread ratio.  Its great!  And finally the babaloa was great.  I love the mix of the creamy soy pudding and the fruity and tart orange topping.  A great finish.  This is one of my favorite lunch menus.  Top 10 for sure!  Gochisousamadeshita!

ごはん　牛乳　えびシューマイ

切干大根のナムル　マーボー豆腐

～Lunch Report By ALT～

Today is a Chinese style menu.  Mabo Dofu, Shrimp Shumai, and namul salad.  The namul is excellent, crunchy, and packed with flavor and lots of vegetables.  I love the sesame flavor mixed with the nice fresh flavors of the vegetables and ham.  Today’s namul feels like it had extra ingredients in it.  The mabo dofu today was very good and I think it was a tiny bit more spicy than usual.  The sauce looked a little more red than last time.  It was excellent as always.  The shumai were full of shrimp flavor and quite good, but mine were cold.  Next time I will put my shumai into my mabo dofu to warm them up!  Today’s best menu items for me was the mabo dofu and the namul.  Wonderful meal.

ココアあげパン　牛乳　ハムと大根のサラダ

コーンシチュー

～Lunch Report By ALT～

Today is a great menu.  Special Cocoa Agepan, Corn Stew, and Ham and Daikon Salad.  The tangy and bright flavors of the crunchy daikon and cucumber contrast the savory meat in the salad perfectly and make it extremely delicious to enjoy.  The corn stew was hot, delicious, and extremely hearty.  Filled to the brim with vegetables and some meat as well, it was absolutely wonderful.  Again, kyuushoku stew cannot be beaten.  I liked the sweetness of the corn strew soaking into the soft potatoes and eating them with the slightly savory and juicy onions for a great combo of flavor and texture. Today’s agepan seemed like it had a lot more sugary coating on it than usual so it was very very sweet.  Normally it has a kinako sugar coating on it but today is cocoa and it was good.  The chocolately flavor was interesting and went very well with milk.  Excellent lunch today and easily the best lunch of the 3rd semester. Gochisousamadeshita!

 

ごはん　牛乳　青ヒラスの味勝焼き
白菜のおひたし　どさんこ汁　みかんゼリー

～Lunch Report By ALT～

Today’s hakusai salad was quite good and I enjoyed the katsuo boshi flavor the most.  The ‘Dosannko’ soup was really delicious and had a very rich flavor and was filled with vegetables.  I like the buttery flavor of the broth and the soft texture of the potatoes in particular.  Today’s fish was good, but not my favorite.  I would like to try it hot.  The tangerine jelly was quite good and still quite frozen because it is so cold! Today’s best menu items to me were the soup and the salad and of course the tangerine jelly.

【始業式】
黒とうパン　牛乳　チキンのオーブン焼き
カリコリサラダ　きつねうどん

～Lunch Report By ALT～

Happy New Year!  This is the first school lunch of the new year and the 3rd semester at Imasan.  Today’sa kitsune udon was delicious and had a perfect balance of sweetness and savory from the noodles and the abura age.  The crunchy cube salad was amazing.  I love that salad.  The dressing tasted special today, almost a little smokey.  Maybe I am imagining things.  I want to add a new ‘corner’ to these food reports to keep them interesting. ALT Kyushoku Urawaza: Use half the bread to make a sandwich with the baked chicken!  Use the other half in quarters to soak up the soup and dressing from the salad.  The chicken sandwich was my favorite part of today’s meal!  Thank you and please have a wonderful new year in 2021!

【終業式】

ホットドッグ　牛乳　チャンポンメン

～Lunch Report　By ALT～

Merry Christmas!  I really wish we had yesterday’s menu today, but in Japan many people think the 24th is Christmas and it isn’t. The 25th is Christmas day.  Today we got a hot dog and some chanponmen.  An interesting combination.  The chanponmen was quite delicious and I enjoyed the salty flavor very much.   The hot dog was very good as well and I like the little container that the ketchup and mustard come in.  It was a fine lunch, but this isn’t what I could consider a Christmas meal!  Thank you!

【クリスマス献立】

セルフチキンピラフ　牛乳　もみの木ハンバーグ

ミネストローネスープ　セレクトデザート

～Lunch Report　By ALT～

Today is clearly a Christmas themed school lunch! Minestrone soup, ‘Make your own chicken pilaf’, A christmas tree shaped hamburg, and a choice of dessert! Quite wide variety of items on the menu today. I started with the pilaf and it was superb. Tons of chicken, and a great variety of vegetables giving it a really nice onion flavor with bursts of sweetness from the corn which stood out. Delicious and a new menu item I think with excellent flavor. The minestrone soup was nice and had a light tomato flavor. I enjoyed it and even think I saw a snowman naruto (Or maybe a ghost? Haha.) in the soup as well. The hamburg was very cute looking and with ketchup it was quite good. Finally the cake! We got a choice of classic strawberry shortcake, a chocolate cake, and ‘cup dessert’, which was pudding or jelly I think. I went for the classic strawberry shortcake because it had the highest weight! Also, believe it or not, I prefer a lighter style of cake and think many chocolate cakes are very dense and heavy. The strawberry was a great choice and it had two layers of sponge, two layers of light and fluffy strawberry cream, and a layer of strawberry jam in the middle. An absolute delight and a wonderful finish to this excellent meal! This was a top 10 for sure! Gochisousamadeshita!

米粉パン　牛乳　白身魚フライ

ブロッコリーサラダ　マカロニのクリーム煮

～Lunch Report　By ALT～

Today is another great day for school lunch. The wonderful macaroni cream stew as well as broccoli salad and fried fish. The salad was delicious and had a lot of creamy sweetness from the corn and the dressing. The fried fish was pretty good and it came with sauce as well which was nice. I enjoyed mixing it with bites of bread so the sweetness of the bread complimented to saltiness of the fish and sauce like a mini sandwich. It was great. My favorite dish of the day though has to be the macaroni stew. I said it before and I will say it again, I love every stew that comes out for lunch and today is no different. Creamy, filled with delicious vegetables and meat, and the macaroni is a great change of pace from the normal ingredients. It was awesome and perfect with the bread. Wonderful lunch!

そぼろ丼　牛乳　鮭団子汁

～Lunch Report　By ALT～

Today is a nice simple menu of saborodon and soup with salmon balls. It looks simple but is packed with flavor. The soup was great and very delicious. The salmon balls had a light but very enjoyable flavor which made the whole soup taste better. The saborodon was amazing as always. I love that unique flavor. It reminds me of ginger and soy sauce. The mix with the eggs is perfect and the lima beans add a really nice crunch in there as well. It goes perfectly with rice. Today is a great lunch!

【冬至献立】

冬野菜カレーライス　牛乳　ツナサラダ　ゆずゼリー

～Lunch Report　By ALT～

Curry day! Also, it is a special menu today celebrating winter due to the solstice. Nothing wrong with starting a Monday with delicious curry and rice. And a yummy Tuna salad too with Yuzu jelly on the side. The salad was great and I love the sweetness from the corn mixed with the citrusy dressing. The tuna also adds a nice flavor to the mix as well. The winter curry was also quite interesting including renkon, daikon, potatoes, spinach, and pumpkin as well. Very fitting ingredients for the season with many root vegetables. It gave it a unique flavor compared to curry on other days. Interesting! The yuzu jelly was extremely refreshing and new as well. Yuzu has a special smell and flavor that is different from other citrus fruits and it’s very enjoyable. A delicious conclusion to a yummy meal.

コッペパン　マーシャルビーンズ　牛乳

スパゲッティミートソース　ハムと大根のサラダ

～Lunch Report　By ALT～

Nice! Pasta and bread with MARSHALL BEANS! I love marshall beans. It is a soy-based chocolate which tastes a little like peanut butter too. The ham and daikon salad is one of my favorites because of the nice juicy and crunchy texture as well as the lemony tangy dressing. It’s a great starter. Today’s pasta was very good and the tomato sauce was very delicious. I liked the meat and the mushrooms as well that gave it a nice texture. Finally I enjoyed the bread with marshall beans spread. I always use a little of the bread to clean the salad dressing and the pasta sauce from the bowl so that the marshall beans to bread ratio is better. A fantastic meal today and one of my favorite kyushoku combinations. Certainly a top 15 meal! Gochisousamadeshita!

【とちぎ地産地消元気アップ・水産物献立】

ごはん　牛乳　あゆの甘露煮

五目きんぴら　どさんこ汁

～Lunch Report　By ALT～

Today is another special Tochigi menu day. Today’s special menu features fish, konpira salad, and soup. The kinpira was sweet and had lots of gobo and aburaage which gave it a nice earthy flavor. The ayu was quite delicious and sweet, but had a little bitterness as well. It was a nice balance of flavors and I was able to eat it completely from head to tailfin! The soup as well was very well balanced and the sweet flavor of the corn mixed with the saltiness perfectly. It was a delicious lunch today!

きなこあげパン　牛乳　カリコリサラダ

白菜のシチュー

～Lunch Report　By ALT～

Today is another very good lunch day! It has been a great week so far for lunches! Today is hakusai stew, cube salad, and agepan. The salad is called ‘Karikori Salad’ which means ‘Crispy crunchy salad’, but I call it cube salad because everything is shaped like a square or a cube. It is delicious and although the dressing is light, it pairs very well with the natural juiciness of the vegetables and the flavor of the ham slices. I love this salad. And of course it was very crunchy. The stew was very good and the flavor of the hakusai was quite strong among the creaminess of the soup itself. Agepan. I think it is a mystery. Everyone likes agepan and I think it is good, but it is difficult for me to eat without making a mess because it is so big! Today’s agepan has kinako powder on it and it was sweet and nice. What a wonderful lunch. I love every stew that comes with school lunch.

【とちぎ地産地消元気アップ・牛肉給食】

県産和牛の牛丼　牛乳　沢煮椀　りんごゼリー

～Lunch Report　By ALT～

Today is another special Tochigi menu day.  Today’s menu is a power up Tochigi beef menu and it is absolutely decadent looking.  The soup was good and the crunchy texture of the ingredients cut into sticks was good.  The main menu of the day is the wagyu Tochigi Beef.  Wagyu in school lunch is unthinkable so this is a special treat!  So many special menus filled with delicious and rare ingredients in November and December.  We are very lucky.  The beef, onion, noodle, and carrot mix was transcendent.  The best beef I have ever eaten in school lunch and was perfectly seasoned as well.  The taste of the beef was like eating a large steak and the light sweetness and aftertaste of being cooked was perfect.  The whole thing was an umami festival in my mouth as well.  Wow what a great lunch.  This wagyu was no joke and this is easily the best kyushoku of the year.  Maybe one or two of the other special menus could come close, but the simplicity of a beef bowl with such high quality ingredients cannot be challenged and I will defend it against any other lunch this year so far. And after eating such a treasure as that, we also get a dessert as well.  The apple jelly was great and a nice cap to the meal.  Beautiful. Gochisousama Deshita to the best kyushoku of the year.

ごはん　牛乳　ねぎまんじゅう

切り干し大根のナムル　マーボー豆腐

～Lunch Report　By ALT～

Today is a wonderful day!  It is mabo dofu day!  The namul was excellent and flavorful  I loved the crunch of the daikon strips and the tangy sesame goodness of the dressing.  Today’s mabo dofu was good and nice and hot.  I got a lot of tofu in mine today.  The dumplings might be the best part of today’s meal I think.  I like to put them into the mabo dofu to warm them up and add their flavor to it as well.  Great lunch today!

黒とうパン　牛乳　ハムチーズピカタ

ごぼうサラダ　カレーうどん

～Lunch Report　By ALT～

It’s curry udon day! Today I started with the gobo salad and it was delicious and sweet. I love the texture of gobo and the sweetness from the dressing and corn was quite fine. The ham and cheese picata was superb. The ‘stuffed’ egg dishes that come in kyushoku always feel like a roulette with what is inside and the flavor changes often so it’s a nice surprise. Today’s was very good. The curry udon was nice today and had a gentle spice to it which was good. The bread today was brown sugar bread and it had a light sweetness to it, which was nice. I think today’s theme was the color brown because the curry and bread were brown obviously, gobo is kind of brown, and the picata had some brown marks where it was cooked as well. I can’t say anything about the milk though! It was all white. A delicious meal.

ビビンバ　牛乳　えび団子スープ

～Lunch Report　By ALT～

Today’s menu has many Korean elements to it! Bibinba and shrimp ball soup. The greens for the bibinba were very nice and had a sesame flavor. The meat and root(?) mixture was excellently seasoned as always. I like the soy saucey flavors. The soup was very delicious with light flavors and an interesting texture from the noodles and vegetables. The shrimp balls were excellent and packed with flavor. A great lunch today!

ごはん　牛乳　さばのみそ煮

五目ひじき　さつま汁

～Lunch Report　By ALT～

Today is a Japanese style lunch with fish, hijiki, soup, and rice. The hijiki salad was good as always. Today there were some noodles in it, which was interesting. Also, I was lucky and got a big piece of meat in it which was nice. The satsuma soup was quite an interesting experience. It is just the regular miso style soup we often get, but with some sweet potato chunk in it. If you eat it without the sweet potato it is just normal soup, but after taking a bite of sweet potato the soup comes to life and tastes even better. I liked that. Today’s fish, saba, was cooked in a sweet miso sauce which paired very well with the natural flavor of the fish. It was quite delicious!

ごはん　牛乳　春巻

ハムとニラの和え物　八宝菜

～Lunch Report　By ALT～

Today is happousai, fried spring rolls, and salad. A Chinese-style menu. The salad was really good and I liked the tangy flavor of the dressing and the nice flavor from the sesame and ham. The happousai, or ‘Eight Treasure Vegetables’, was good. I like happousai but think it has a LOT of flavors and ingredients. All the flavors mix up so I don’t know how to describe it! I taste mostly the shrimp and squid though. Its great with rice. Today’s secret superstar is the fried spring roll though. The wrapper is salty and so good and crunchy I love it. The filling is nice and juicy and has great balance with the wrapper which is nice. I could eat like 20 of these I think haha. Great lunch!

ごはん　牛乳　厚焼卵

小松菜のごま和え　肉じゃが

～Lunch Report　By ALT～

Today something special has happened. Nikujaga has broken free from natto for the first time in the history of kyushoku! I walked past the menu and saw today’s menu was nikujaga, and knew that meant natto, but to see there was no natto was such a big surprise! The salad was excellent and the sweet sesame dressing was great. It was creamy, juicy, a little crunchy, and very hearty. The Tamagoyaki was very good too. It too, was sweet and juicy and very delicious. Japanese tamagoyaki always reminds me of French toast since it is so sweet and eggy. The nikujaga is like a masterpiece. The slippery and juicy noodles contrasted the potatoes and carrots which were filled with the delicious broth. Flavorful meat, onions, and green beans which have absorbed all the goodness from the soup were treasures as well. Today’s lunch was phenomenal and I am very happy. Top 10 if not a top 5. Certainly the best if not one of the best Japanese menus to date. Gochisousamadeshita!

食パン　とちおとめジャム　牛乳

焼きそば　海そうサラダ　ヨーグルト

～Lunch Report　By ALT～

Today is yaki soba day! Always a crowd pleaser. The seaweed salad was a little slimy as always but the crunch from the cucumbers, cabbage, and corn are nice and the flavors are a nice mix of sweetness and salty from the dressing. Today’s yaki soba was good as always. I got lucky today and had a fair amount of little pork chunks in it which was nice. For dessert we got a slice of white bread with some strawberry jam as well as yogurt. Bread and yogurt often come in a pair I notice which is quite interesting. I wonder if the nutritional content of bread and yogurt compliment each other. Either way I am a big fan and love kyushoku yogurt. It’s so sweet and creamy. Great lunch today!

いか天丼　牛乳　もみづけ　キムチ入りとん汁

～Lunch Report　By ALT～

Today is an Asian fusion style meal between Korean and Japanese food I think. Ika tendon and Kimchi tonjiru as well as a salad. The momitzuke salad is lightly flavored, but the sesame seeds are very good and add a lot of depth to it. It’s a personal favorite. The kimchi tonjiru is today’s secret champion since its warm and hearty and the flavors of the kimchi make the tonjiru really shine. It’s an excellent dish. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, the sauce for the ika tendon is seriously the best. I love that stuff. A wonderful lunch today. Thank you!

コッペパン　牛乳　スラッピージョー

チーズポテト　ワンタンスープ

～Lunch Report　By ALT～

Today is a wonderful lunch and I am extremely happy since I missed the last time that sloppy joes came out. Besides them, cheesy potatoes and wonton soup. What a mix of foods today, it is almost like a birthday present. I started with the wonton soup. It has noodles and chicken in it so we would probably call it chicken noodle soup back in America which would fit better than wonton soup which is a Chinese dish. Either way it was delicious and had a lot of umami and the chicken chunks were pretty big. The cheesy potatoes were great as well. We rarely get potatoes as a side on their own and they are my favorite vegetable for sure. I like the cheesy addition, but they could have used a little salt and pepper. I love pepper on potatoes. And finally the sloppy joe. This sloppy joe mix is pretty good and the onion flavor is excellent. Sloppy joes taste very similar if not exactly like this in American schools so it’s very nostalgic for me to eat this. What a treat. Today is a top 3 lunch for me and maybe the best kyushoku of the year. Maybe! Gochisousamadeshita!

ごはん　牛乳　さんまのみぞれ煮

白菜のおひたし　すいとん汁

～Lunch Report　By ALT～

Today is a Japanese style lunch with Miso Sanma, ‘Suiton’ soup, and some salad. I am excited to try the fish and soup. The flavor from the katsuoboshi in the salad was great and the crunch of the hakusai was nice and also quite juicy. A nice salad today. The suiton soup was great and had a nice flavor. It was almost like the broth of ramen since it was flavored with soy sauce. Suiton is apparently a small noodle-ball made of mochi. It was really good and nice with the soup. I liked this soup a lot and was really happy to try it. The Sanma was excellent and I love it and the flavor of the miso sauce it was cooked in. I ate all my rice very quickly thanks to that. Today was an interesting Japanese style lunch with some new textures and flavors which was great. Thank you!

そぼろ丼　牛乳　けんちん汁　みかん

～Lunch Report　By ALT～

Today is the last day of November and we have another nice lunch. Today is Saboro-don and soup with a mikan. The soup was good and warm and had a light flavor. I liked the cabbage and onions the best. The saborodon is very good. I love the ginger flavor of the ground chicken and the mix with eggs and some lima beans is perfect. One of my favorite kyushoku dishes. And the mikan was sweet, a little tart, and delicious. Also my second mikan today since I ate one with breakfast too! Vitamin C!

メンチカツバーガー　牛乳　マカロニのクリーム煮

～Lunch Report　By ALT～

Wow! Cream stew with macaroni is back! I love this dish. Also, delicious menchi katsu burger as well. The menchi katsu burger is bread, katsu, cabbage, and sauce. The katsu tasted great and had a perfect crunch. The cabbage added some nice texture and moisture as well. The sauce went perfect with the katsu of course, since it is katsu sauce! I liked the bread as well which added some sweetness to the whole sandwich. I like to save some of the bread for the stew since they are a nice pair as well. The stew was nice and hot and on another very cold day it was quite welcome. The flavor was mostly of milk, but a little bit of the vegetable flavor came through along with some of the meat flavor as well. It is such a nice and delicious stew and I love it. Great lunch today, top ten! Gochisousama Deshita!

ごはん　牛乳　ねぎまんじゅう

じゃこサラダ　マーボー豆腐

～Lunch Report　By ALT～

Today is Mabo Dofu day. It is a wonderful day indeed! The ‘Jako Salad’ was a nice and easy start to the meal and I saw that there were little fish inside of it. I think they are the ‘Jako’ part. I liked the fried tofu bits and they reminded me of croutons. The steamed onion dumplings were superb. I could eat 20 of them easily haha. Today’s mabo dofu was hot and fresh and tasted great. I think the dumplings had the best flavor of the day, but mabo dofu is always one of the best kyushoku meals of all time. An excellent lunch and of course a top 10. Gochisousamadeshita!

いちごパン　牛乳　スパゲッティナポリタン

ビーンズサラダ　プリン（豆乳）

～Lunch Report　By ALT～

Today is a western style lunch with pasta, salad, strawberry bread, and pudding. The bean salad was yummy and hearty as well. The creamy dressing was nice and brought all the ingredients together. I like how the ingredients were the same size or cut to be similar to the size of the beans. The spaghetti was delicious and the slices of wiener add some savory goodness to the sweet tomato sauce. I was surprised to see how pink the inside of the bread was. It smelled so fresh of strawberries and was a treat. The sauce on the bottom of the pudding was excellent and had a nice caramel flavor. A great lunch on this cold and rainy day.

【とちぎ地産地消元気アップ・水産物献立】

ごはん　牛乳　ヤシオマスのフライ（ソース）

五目ひじき　沢煮椀

～Lunch Report　By ALT～

Today is a Japanese style lunch with fried fish, hijiki salad, and some soup. The hijiki salad is quite delicious and the meaty aburaage adds some nice texture and flavor. Today’s lunch theme is that many if not all of the ingredients are from Tochigi and from bodies of water like rivers and lakes. The soup ‘Sawani Wan’ translates roughly to ‘River Bowl’ and the ingredients are all cut into strips so that they flow easier I think. Interesting idea and very delicious. When all the ingredients in the soup are in small strips it adds an interesting texture like with gobo salad. Finally today’s fish, the fried Yashio trout was very big! Also, it is rare to get red fish in school lunch so it’s a real treat. And I heard that the Yashio trout is native to Tochigi which is interesting. Like the beef in the curry last week, this week’s trout is very high quality and really good. Nice and crunchy on the outside and juicy on the inside. Normally Japanese menu days are conservative with size, but today was special! A top 15 menu for sure. Gochisousama Deshita!

【地産地消週間】

県産小麦のコッペパン　とちおとめジャム　牛乳

ハンバーグのトマト煮　ポパイソテー

オニオンスープ　県産ヨーグルト

～Lunch Report　By ALT～

Today is a very big lunch! The ‘popeye sautee’ was quite good. I like spinach and the corn and ham were nice additions to the hot salad. The hamburg with tomato sauce was also very well seasoned and tasted great. I made a sandwich using my bread and it was yummy. We don’t often get onion soup and it was pretty good. I like onions a lot. I ate the strawberry jam with some of my bread and yogurt. It was a delicious mix of sweetness and creaminess. My kyushoku strawberry danish! Excellent meal today. This week was a very great week of good school lunch!

【とちぎ地産地消元気アップ・牛肉献立】

県産牛のビーフカレーライス　牛乳　ハムと大根のサラダ

～Lunch Report　By ALT～

Today many people are talking about the beef in today’s curry because it was raised in Tochigi and very high quality. I am very excited to try it! The ham and daikon salad with cucumbers was great. I love the crunchiness of the daikon, and the flavor of the dressing too. I can taste citrus in the dressing and it has a nice bright flavor that is satisfying. And next is the famous beef curry. The curry flavor was the familiar as always, but had a slightly more complex flavor thanks to being stewed in the meat giving it more umami. The beef was more tender and had a softer texture than usual which was nice. Also the flavor of course was a bit more ‘meaty’. I mean that I could taste the meat more than the curry seasoning when I was eating it and really enjoyed the savory and creamy flavors from the beef. It was an excellent curry as always, being able to enjoy such high quality beef from Tochigi is a treat, and I am thankful for the opportunity. A top 5 kyushoku of course! Gochisousama Deshita!

【地産地消週間・ごはん献立の日】

ごはん　牛乳　さんまのみぞれ煮

県産ごぼうのきんぴら　にこにこ汁

～Lunch Report　By ALT～

Today is ‘Rice Menu’ day! So there are many dishes that go great with rice. The gobo salad is great and has that earthy sweet flavor which I love. Of course it goes well with rice and is complimented by carrots, konyaku, and satsuma age. The king of food that goes great with rice today is the Sanma. Sanma with a delicious savory miso sauce is a perfect match and absolutely delicious and makes rice disappear quickly. The ‘niko niko’ soup was also quite good. I liked the daikon in particular for the juicy crunch it adds to the dish. Today’s champion was the sanma for sure and I would eat it again and again. Excellent meal today!

【地産地消週間】

ごはん　牛乳　県産ぶた肉ぎょうざ

かんぴょうサラダ　ワンタンスープ

～Lunch Report　By ALT～

Today’s lunch has a Chinese theme to it and looks delicious. Sadly I missed lunch yesterday, but it was natto so maybe I was lucky? I would have loved to try the ginger flavored nikujaga though. The salad was really good and I enjoyed the dressing a lot. After speaking with the Nutritionist, they mentioned that almost all the kanpyo in school lunch was made in Tochigi! The wonton soup was excellent and had a great light salty flavor with the wonton noodles adding a nice texture and soaking up the broth making for a nice juicy bite. Today’s gyoza used all Tochigi pork and were wonderful. A nice char and crunch on the skin while having a yummy ginger and pork flavor for the filling. An excellent school lunch today. Top 15 for sure. Gochisousama Deshita.

【地産地消週間】

ごはん　牛乳　県産納豆

小松菜のいそ香り和え　しょうが風味の肉じゃが

はちみつパン　牛乳　スペイン風オムレツ

白菜とツナのサラダ　カレーうどん　お米のババロア

～Lunch Report　By ALT～

Today’s lunch has a lot of items! It feels like a lot to eat and I am hungry! The hakusai and tuna salad is amazing and it has been a while since I’ve eaten it. Great as always and filled with vegetables and yummy flavor. The ‘Spanish style’ omelet is always a mystery to me. It tastes fine, like a small slice of quiche without any crust and has potato in it. I don’t know what is Spanish about it though, but it is still delicious. Last time I recall it had onions and this time potatoes. The curry udon has the classic kyushoku curry flavor and the spongy and yummy udon instead of rice. I actually dip some of the honey bread into the curry for a salty and sweet mix of flavors and it is pretty good. I like to save the bread for the dessert though since they are a nice pair and it’s almost like a Danish. The ‘bababloa’ was actually a surprise to me and tasted like a creamsicle. A creamsicle is a type of ice cream with fruity orange ice on the outside and creamy milky ice on the inside. It reminded me of the states. Today’s lunch was excellent and I loved it. Top 10! Gochisousamadeshita!

ごはん　牛乳　さばの味勝焼き

もみづけ　筑前煮

～Lunch Report　By ALT～

Unfortunately I missed two days of school lunch including yakisoba and Korean style karaage. What a heartbreak.. But today’s lunch looks delicious so I am very happy. The ‘momizuke’ salad was quite nice and had a bright ginger flavor with sesame too. The ‘chikuzenni’ soup was nice and earthy, with a few bits of sweetness as well. I liked the daikon radish and it reminded me of oden. The fish was great with rice and the oil and salty flavor were nice with the natural flavor of the fish. A nice Japanese style kyshoku!

黒とうパン　牛乳　焼きそば　根菜サラダ