Health and Wealth Japanese Features japanese food Traditional Spring Dish Tsukushi Dish

Eat Wild Grasses LITERALLY found on the Streets!!

Spring has just turned the corner, bringing colorful news that Sakura, or Cherry Blossoms, have started flowering in Japan.  The Sakura Line (which indicates when and where in Japan Sakura can be enjoyed at their best) is literally reaching Nagoya.

Tsukushi (English:Horsetail)

It is less known, but before Sakura blooming, Spring is when Japanese people enjoy eating wild grasses!!  It really makes sense why Japanese people are sooo healthy!

Tsukushi (English: Horsetail, shown in the picture above) is one of the small delights of Spring.  When weather gets warmer, say in mid-March, Tsukushi shoots its green head out of the cold ground. 

Japanese people cook this Tsukushi with soy sauce, eggs, and sesame oil.  These days unfortunately, fewer people make this dish, but it was one of the traditional spring dishes for common folks.

Tsukushi is one of the wild grasses, which means a free harvest.  And easy to cook, too: Remove leafy parts of the Tsukushi shoots, and cook them.  Bitter taste of the green head (shown in the picture) is a reminder of the Spring flavour and taste for those who used to cook Tsukushi.

Preparation of Tsukushi for Cooking

Remove all the leafy parts, literally getting them naked (shown in the above picture), wash them thoroughly, and boil them for 30 seconds or so.  Then, stir-fry them with sesame oil, soy sauce, and eggs in the frying pan.  

This is the finished product, or the dish called "Tukushi No Tamago Toji" (English: Horsetail cooked with eggs).  Yummy.....Spring Bitterness!!

Other wild grasses, which are edible and LITERALLY found on the streets, include.....

"Hakobe" (English: Chickweed), "Seri" (English: Water Celery), "Nabana" (English: Rapeseed), "Yomogi" (English: Wormwood), to name a few.

Hakobe along the sidewalk, Hakobe literally looks like a weed, right? 

"Hakobe", "Seri" and "Nabana" are good for "Ohitashi," which is  a dish of lightly boiled wild grasses eaten with soy sauce and bonito flakes, and sometimes with sasame seeds.  "Yomogi" is used for "Yomogi mochi" (English: rice cake mixed with Yomogi leaves).  This Yomogi Mochi has a flavor of grass, matched with red soy bean paste, another ingredient.  One of the best Spring Wagashi (English: Japanese sweets).

Yomogi on the sidewalk, how many Yomogi-mochi can be made from these leaves?

Spring is the best season when we can get access to these wild grassess!!  Why don't you try one of them?