If you aspire to perfecting your Japanese cooking skills, remember the three requirements of a good apprentice: practice, practice, practice.

Panko, or Japanese bread crumbs, is different from other types of bread crumbs. If you cannot buy panko pre-packaged, you can make your own using this easy recipe.

A true Japanese person will not usher in the New Year without eating a bowl of ozoni, if he can help it. One’s entire year of luck hinges on this auspicious mochi soup.

This dish represents the mother-child relationship as it features both chicken and egg, simmered together and served on steamed white rice.

Little toasted mochi cakes float in a simple broth made with sweet anko.

Foods symbolic of good health, wealth and luck help usher in the New Year with delicious tradition in Japan.

Japanese recipes use metric measurements. Here are links to online measurement conversion tools.

Often called a Japanese pizza, okonomiyaki is an economical egg-based dish that is really more like a cross between a vegetable omelet and a pancake. It is another popular street food.

Pouring hot tea over rice once was a way to collect the last rice that stuck to the bowl, but many people enjoy ochazuke (rice and tea) as a humble yet satisfying meal when it is accompanied by simple okazu (side dishes).

Nishime is a Japanese stew filled with lotus root, burdock, kelp and other delicious ingredients.