給食だより

【歯と口の健康週間】

ミルクパン　牛乳　スラッピージョー

グリーンポテト　オニオンスープ　ぶどうグミ（⇒７日に変更）

～Lunch Report By ALT～

Very unique school lunch today.  The ‘green potato’ is what my mother used to simply call parsley potatoes, a kind of drier mashed potato with a liberal mix of parsley  Mashed potatoes have to be one of my all time favorite foods and these are not bad.  I think they need salt and pepper, but they are still very good.  They pair well with the soup as well which is quite good.  The onion soup is really nice and has some good flavors.  The bacon adds a lot of good smokey flavors as well which is nice.  The sloppy joe is a super tasty sandwich and tastes very close to the ones I ate when I was younger.  Very interesting and delicious lunch today and satisfying as well.  It is so rainy and dreary today so having a nice lunch like this feels good.

ごはん　牛乳　ぶた肉と野菜のしょうが炒め

えび団子スープ

～Lunch Report By ALT～

Nice simple menu today.  A ginger pork stir fry and some shrimp ball soup!  The soup itself has a very light flavor, but when you take a bit of the shrimp meatballs the flavor explodes and its super delicious as a whole. The texture and juiciness of the spring noodles is great.  My favorite.  The stir fry’s ginger flavor is very strong today.  The meat and vegetables were plentiful as well and it was a great main dish with rice.  Super filling and I feel like I could eat a lot of it!  Fantastic meal today! Thank you!

ミルクパン　牛乳　煮こみハンバーグ

ほうれん草サラダ　ワンタンスープ

～Lunch Report By ALT～

Interesting looking lunch today.  Lots of vibrant colors and a variety of styles as well.  I look forward to it greatly.  The tuna and spinach salad was quite nice.  Very juicy and mushy, but flavorful and delicious with little crunchy pops of sweetness from the corn.  The wonton soup was delicious and I love the juicy noodles and the taste of the soup as well.  Hot and yummy.  I love today’s bread and hamburg combo because if you cut the hamburg lengthwise in half it fits perfectly on the bread making for a nice little hamburg sandwich!  An interesting and delicious lunch which was very satisfying.  Yummy!

いか天丼　牛乳　ブロッコリーのごま和え　とん汁

～Lunch Report By ALT～

Today is ikatendon!  The broccoli sesame salad was delicious.  It had a nice creamy sweet flavor from the dressing and the sesame seeds which was juicy and satisfying soaked into the broccoli.  Today’s tonjiru soup reminds me a little bit of the dosanko soup, satisfying and filling with many healthy ingredients like cabbage, potatoes, carrots, and tofu.  The ikaten was good and the wonderful sauce really gives it the unique and nice flavor.  I always put my ikaten on my rice before I put sauce on it so the extra sauce flows into the rice making it super flavorful.  A nice lunch on a windy and sunny day!

黒とうパン　牛乳　肉団子

ビーンズサラダ　マカロニのクリーム煮

【Lunch Report by ALT】

Just by looking at today’s lunch you know it will be delicious.  The bean salad is so colorful, the stew looks creamy and filled with delicious ingredients and the meatballs are shining with yummy sauce.  The salad was excellent and had a variety of crunchy, juicy, and soft mushy textures which were enjoyable.  Also the salad had a great balance of flavors from the vegetables with sweetness too.  Oh and today is the day!  The stew was perfect.  It was hot and creamy and sometimes there is too much milk which can thin the flavor, but it was really amazing and thick today.  And a true treat, even though we have a super good stew, were the pair of yummy meatballs.  I put them into my bread and made a mini meatball sub.  The sweetness of the bread and the meatballs mixed perfectly making for a nice final flavor in my mouth.  Today was truly one of the best lunches yet this year!  Perfect on all fronts.  Gochisousamadeshita!

【小松菜の日】

ごはん　牛乳　とりのからあげ韓国風

小松菜のごま和え　なめこ汁

【Lunch Report by ALT】

Today is fried chicken and “komatsuna day”.  Today’s salad, the komatsuna sesame salad, was excellent.  I love the flavor of the dressing and the texture is also perfect.  I like the sweetness of the sesame dressing a lot.  The nameko mushroom soup was very tasty and had a nice earthy and salty flavor.  I usually don’t like the sliminess of nameko, but it was toned back today which was nice.  Today’s main event was the Korean-style fried chicken and it was a masterpiece.  Often the specially flavored fried chicken is always good, but today was seriously almost perfect.  The only way it could have been better is if I had gotten mine moments after it came out of the fryer!  The light spiciness and a nice sweetness mixed with a quality garlic and onion base is so yummy.  The sauce on the outside took away some of the crispiness, but it still retained most of its crunchy texture and was excellent.  A truly delicious kyuushoku today. Gochisousamadeshita!

ミルクパン　マーシャルビンズ　牛乳

焼きそば　ハムと大根のサラダ

【Lunch Report by ALT】

Yaki soba and... MARSHALL BEANS!!!  Yes!  What a great menu today.  The daikon, ham, and cucumber salad is great. It is super crunchy and has a really nice almost creamy dressing which adds to the flavors of the ham and veggies.  Today’s yakisoba is wonderful and had a lot of flavor from the sauce.  Also there was a lot of meat and octopus chunks in mine today making it even more hearty than usual.  Finally the marshall beans and bread were lovely as always.  I adore this chocolately nutty spread and it pairs perfectly with bread and milk as well.  Great lunch today.

ごはん　牛乳　いわしのごまみそ煮

きんぴらごぼう　どさんこ汁

【Lunch Report by ALT】

Dosanko Soup day!  Today’s salad is kinpira gobo.  I love gobo for its lightly crunchy texture and sweet earthy flavor.  The dosanko is kind of a savory soup with many ingredients famous in Hokkaido.  It is super good and one of my favorite soups.  The fish today was also very well done and the flavor of the miso was delicious.  Perfect with rice and a very light flavor as well.  Nice lunch today.

ポークカレーライス　牛乳

海そうサラダ　はちみつレモンゼリー

【Lunch Report by ALT】

Curry day!  I am excited for today’s jelly honestly.  The seaweed salad was slimy, but good and had a nice fresh flavor as usual.  The sweet corn and crunchy cucumbers save the texture for me personally.  The curry today was very good and the potatoes were cut quite large making for a nice big hot bite.  Also, today the curry was on the spicier side which was appreciated.  On a hot and humid day like today the curry is delicious, but I started to sweat a little!  Today’s jelly, though, was a perfect finish after the curry.  The honey and lemon are a match made in heaven and absolutely great as a cool jelly.  I wish mine was still more frozen, but it is a hot day and there is nothing you can do about it.  I got one or two really nice frozen bites which were perfect.  Nice lunch to kick off the week!

【地産地消献立：いちごパン】

いちごパン　牛乳　スパゲッティナポリタン

グリーンサラダ　ヨーグルト

【LunchReport by ALT】

Spaghetti day!  I love school spaghetti, it is sweet with just enough savory flavors to have a nice balance.  Today’s salad is a good one too.  It is like the flowering veggie salad, but instead of cauliflower we get corn instead.  It is sweet from the corn and the vegetables soak up the dressing very well too and have a nice juicy crunch.  Today’s pasta was quite good and in particular I liked the large cut of the onions and the green peppers.  You can really enjoy the flavor of the veggies together with the sauce.  The bread and yogurt I ate at the same time so make a kind of strawberry yogurt bread.  The bread had a really nice strawberry flavor and the sweet creaminess of the yogurt paired with it well making for a nice refreshing dessert after the pasta and salad.  Wonderful lunch!

ごはん　牛乳　ホイコーロー

豆腐とわかめのスープ　オレンジ

【Lunch Report by ALT】

Today’s menu is hoikoro and tofu wakame soup. Hoikoro is one of my favorite items of all time for school lunch.  The soup is actually quite good and the flavor is different.  We have eaten a lot of miso soup recently so it’s a nice change of pace to get a new type of soup.  The wakame and tofu are a nice pair as well.  The hoikoro was on point and absolutely great as always.  Super flavorful and went down with rice perfectly.  I was hungry today and ate it rather quickly!  I like to save one or two bites of rice to clean my plate since the sauce with the hoikoro is really good. Finally there was a nice orange slice which was a nice tangy dessert to conclude the meal.  I ate mine in one bite!

【ごはん献立の日】

ごはん　牛乳　あじの竜田あげ

ひじきのいため煮　五目みそ汁

【Lunch Report by ALT】

Today is the ‘rice menu’ day with lots of foods that go great with rice.  The hijiki is quite good and I particularly enjoyed the little bits of meat in it today.  I got lucky and there were a few really big ones in there so it was great.  Today’s miso soup was also quite special and filled with many nice ingredients like potatoes, abura age, and daikon.  It was quite good and the vegetables gave it a lot of nice flavor.  Now today’s main dish, the fried Aji was excellent.  I don’t think we have gotten the aji tatsuta before and it is super good!  Great flavor from both the good fry up and also the flavor of the tatsuta as well.  Super juicy and perfect with rice because of how salty it is.  I wish I had saved more rice than I did to enjoy with the aji age.  A quite pleasant lunch, which didn’t look so good on paper (to me) but ended up being really delicious.  Thank you!

ごはん　牛乳　えびシューマイ

ハムとニラの和え物　マーボー豆腐

【Lunch Report by ALT】

Today is the Mabo/Shumai combo menu.  It is always a good lunch.  The ham and nira salad was great.  Loads of bean sprouts, sesame seeds, and tons of flavor as well.  The mabo was fine, hot, and loaded with meat which was hearty and filling.  The shumai were little explosions of flavor that really went well with the tofu.  A yummy lunch today!  Warms you up on the rainy and cool day we are having.

三色丼（そぼろ・ごま和え）　牛乳

けんちん汁

【Lunch Report by ALT】

Unfortunately I was not here today so I didn’t get to enjoy the yummy sanshokudon!  It is one of my faves too!  Next time!

【マーマレードの日】

ミルクパン　マーマレード　牛乳

チキンのオーブン焼き　ツナサラダ　カレーうどん

【Lunch Report by ALT】

Curry Udon and Baked Chicken!  Today’s lunch is another interesting combination and today is also known as Marmalade day!  The tuna salad is a home run as always and has excellent savory and sour flavors from the tuna and dressing as well as nice textures.  The curry udon was excellent today and the spices were really kicking which was nice.  Curry is always good in school lunch, but the level of spice varies greatly and today was super good. For me, the oven baked chicken is the main event today because it is the perfect size for making a little chicken sandwich.  I rip my bread in half and then split it again to make two buns and enjoy a chicken sandwich.  It is delicious, the chicken is crunchy and cheesy, but the inside is tender and nice.  Perfect chicken today!  Finally, the marmalade.  I used the second half of my bread today to enjoy a little marmalade bread dessert and it was great.  The orange flavor was on point and there was even some zest as well which was super tasty adding a little sour and bitter flavor as well which was a nice addition.  Great lunch today.

ごはん　牛乳　納豆

大阪づけ　肉じゃが

【Lunch Report by ALT】

Niku Jaga Vs. Natto day!  Always mixed feelings on this lunch day.  I plow through my natto quickly and it was fine today.  After that I quickly eat plenty of the daikon and cucumber salad as well as rice to clean my chopsticks of the sticky strands as well as begin the long road to restoring my mouth to a state where I can enjoy the nikujaga.  Today’s nikujaga was a work of art.  I love the flavor and textures of nikujaga, the sweet and oniony broth and delicious juicy meat and yummy soft potatoes, onions, carrots, and beans as well.  Always this menu feels like a battle between the delicious and too good to be true nikujaga and one of my very few kyushoku nemesis, natto.  Still, every lunch is a good one even if there are one or two things I don’t like!  Thankful as always.

【アセロラの日】

はちみつパン　牛乳　トマトオムレツ

花野菜サラダ　クラムチャウダー　アセロラゼリー

【Lunch Report by ALT】

Today is an interesting lunch menu with a variety of items but I don’t really know the theme.  Unless the theme is delicious food items because today has all delicious menu items.  The flowering-veggie salad is one of the best of all time because of the choice of dressing, the subtle variety of crunchy and soft textures, and the fact that these veggies soak up the dressing perfectly making for super balanced and very flavorful bites.  Seriously one of my favorite salads.  Coming off of the salad I jumped right into the clam chowder, another favorite of mine as I have stated before, any and all kyushoku stews are delicious and today is no exception.  The texture of the veggies was perfect and the clam bits were yummy too, but overall I felt like it had more liquid than usual and wasn’t as thick and stewy as I was expecting.  Still, a really delicious stew.  The tomato omelet is a new spin on a classic menu item.  This omelet is always changing depending on when and with what it pops up with. Today is the tomato version.  The egg itself is actually flavored pretty strongly which is nice and has a light hints of salt and maybe even garlic mixed in.  In the center is a little surprise burst of tomato sauce, which had a nice flavor as well and even chunks of meat and onion too.  I think so far this is one of the best versions of the omelet to date.  The honey bread was delicious and had a light sweetness to it which was nice as well.  I ate most of it with the milk as a lead up to the dessert besides the portions that I used to clean my soup bowl.  Today’s dessert was acerora jelly and it was a nice sweet finish to the meal.  Great lunch today!  One of the best so far!

ごはん　牛乳　青ヒラスの照り焼き

野菜のおひたし　みそ汁

【Lunch Report by ALT】

Today is a Japanese lunch with salad, soup, and fish. The salad was packed with cucumbers and cabbage and had a lot of katsuoboshi mixed in as well giving it a really yummy smoky flavor.  There were also many sesame seeds as well making this crunchy, yet juicy salad really tasty.  Today’s fish is aohirasu and I personally don’t like it much.  I like teriyaki very much, but I think the natural fishiness of this type fish is a little bit much for me.  It is very popular with the students, though. I will admit that it tasted better to me this time than compared with when we got it last year. The soup was a nice simple miso soup with tofu and seaweed which was quite delicious and great along with the final few bites of rice.  A tasty school lunch although the fish isn’t my favorite, but looking at the rest of this week’s menu, things are abut to get super delicious!

ごはん　牛乳　ぶた肉と野菜のしょうがいため

えび団子スープ

【Lunch Report by ALT】

Today’s menu is the super yummy ginger pork and vegetables with shrimp ball soup on the side.  The ginger pork is excellent and has a nice gentle ginger flavor, but super big flavors from the green pepper and onions, which are my favorite.  Loaded with lots of meat too, this dish is great with rice and very satisfying.  Although the shrimp soup has a lighter flavor than the ginger pork, it is still super delicious and the shrimp flavor is a nice contrast to the pork and ginger.  The noodles have a great texture and it is nice and hot.  Two great dishes making for a simple menu overall, but both with great flavors, lots of tasty ingredients, and complex flavors.  A perfect Monday meal to charge us up for the week to come!

メンチカツバーガー　牛乳

ポトフ　りんごのタルト

【Lunch Report By ALT】

Today is a super neat lunch!  Menchi katsu sandwich with some potof soup and a super yummy apple tart on the side.  The potof was super good.  Buttery and delicious the potatoes were soft and filled with broth and the meats in the soup added a lot of flavor and umami.  The key with making a good menchi sandwich is cutting the katsu in half.  There is a lot of bread roll and you need to span the gap with katsu and cabbage to make each bite delicious.  Then cover it all with the yummy sauce and save a little of the bread to use for the soup.  The katsu today was perfectly fried and filled with a delicious meaty filing that had a strong onion flavor as well which was very enjoyable.  The tart was amazing and super delicious.  Great crunchy texture which was crumbly but was soft and springy like cake on the inside with a delicious apple filling that was sweet and a little tart!  A true treat to conclude the meal.  An absolute treasure of a meal today!

ごはん　牛乳　さばのみそ煮

もみづけ　とり肉とたけのこの煮物

【Lunch Report by ALT】

First lunch of May!  The momizuke salad was nice and crunchy with a great ginger flavor.  Super fresh and refreshing as well.  Today’s soup is a chicken and bamboo boil which was packed with flavor and a ton of interesting ingredients as well.  I liked the daikon and the bamboo in particular since the contrast of the juicy and crunchy bites was enjoyable.  The soup itself was quite sweet and earthy and the chicken added a lot of depth to it.  The Saba in miso sauce was also super good and great with rice.  I actually like the bones in the fish, which have a cool ‘soft crunch’-like texture and don’t take away from the experience.  The sauce today was pretty good too.  A lovely lunch as a welcome back from GW!

ミルクパン　マーシャルビンズ　牛乳

スペイン風オムレツ　ブロッコリーサラダ

ミネストローネスープ

【Lunch Report by ALT】

Today’s menu looks super healthy.  So many vegetables and so much green in everything.  It is a beautiful visually appealing kyuushoku today.  The green salad with creamy white dressing and pops of yellow from the corn is sweet and delicious. The Spanish-style omelet looks like a quiche without a crust to me, but I guess that is what an omelet is isn’t it?  It is lovely and yellow with nice brown colors from being baked, and also has greens and whites from the ingredients inside.  The potatoes gave it a nice texture and I think there may have even been cheese in it too.  It is quite delicious with a very light savory flavor.  Today’s soup is also kind of a main dish as well with the minestrone soup.  Sometimes the flavor of the minestrone soup can be a little too light, but today was quite strong.  The taste of the nice tomatoes and some spices along with all the delicious ingredients inside it as well.  Today I liked the smokey ham chunks and the yummy pasta shells.  The real star of the show today is of course, Marshall Beans.  The soy chocolate cream is so delicious.  The key with this is using some of the bread with the soup or to clean the salad dressing so the beans to bread ratio is nicer and you can get a really good chocolately bite.  Superb lunch today!  Both delicious with a nice variety of flavors and textures and visually beautiful too!  Perfect sendoff into golden week.

バターロール　とちおとめジャム　牛乳

スパゲッティミートソース　ツナサラダ

【Lunch Report by ALT】

Today many parents came to see the lessons of the students.  Today’s salad has a lot of tuna fish and many crunchy vegetables.  It tastes very healthy and the tuna makes it surprisingly meaty!  The pasta today was as good as always.  It has a sweeter sauce with some meat in it as well.  Hidden among the noodles and sauce are carrots and the occasional green pea.  Quite yummy as always.  Of course I use some of my bread roll to clean up the pasta sauce when I am done eating, but I save some for the strawberry jam too.  It was yummy sweet and delicious and the buttery flavor from the bread makes a nice addition.

ごはん　牛乳　包焼　ハムとニラの和え物

春雨スープ　いよかんゼリー

【Lunch Report by ALT】

A very interesting lunch today!  The ham and nira salad was a great starter for the meal and has a slightly tangy flavor with some sesame.  A little crunchy and the strips of ham add some good flavor as well.  The harusame soup was also nice.  The flavor was light, but the texture was very good.  I like the thin noodles very much.  The baoshu dumplings were super good and had a ton of flavor.  They were quite good with rice and soup as well.  The jelly dessert was very good too.  It was sweet and a little bitter as well.  I don’t know what iyokan is, but I am guessing it is in the yuzu family since this reminds me of yuzu.  A tasty Chinese-style lunch today.

かきあげ天丼　牛乳　

大阪づけ　鮭団子汁

【Lunch Report by ALT】

Today is a new menu I think!  Kakiagetendon.  I love kakiage very much and even make it myself so I am interest how good today’s is.  The daikon and cucumber salad was simple and quite nice with some light ginger flavor.  Recently, this fish soup has become quite popular and I am super happy about it because it is so delicious!  Today is no differet and the yummy soup is very flavorful and the fish balls are also great with a salmon flavor that is super good. I think it is a mix of salmon and tuna, but I don’t know. The tendon is already doing great because it comes with that super delicious tendon sauce.  The kakiage was still a little crunchy and filled with many interesting ingredients!  I found potatos(?), beans, carrots, onion, and I think that is it.  I was impressed with it and it was quite good.  The real question to me is, is it better than ikatendon since I think this menu replaced that for today. For me the answer is yes.  I don’t like squid very much, but it is meatier than the kakiage, but we also got fish ball soup today so that was plenty meaty. Interesting new choice and a wonderful school lunch.  Looking forward to seeing more new menu items!

黒とうパン　牛乳　焼きそば

大根とツナのサラダ　ヨーグルト

【Lunch Report by ALT】

Yakisoba and bread day!  Double the carbs! Double the deliciousness!  The daikon and tuna salad was wonderful and the crunchy daikon and cucumber have a nice sweet and tart dressing which contrasts nicely with the salty tuna.  I love this salad and could eat a lot!  The yakisoba was yummy as ever.  It is quite filling and I like to use some of the bread for cleaning the plate when I finish it.  Lastly I eat my yogurt and bread at the same time.  They are such a perfect combo!  Great lunch today.

ごはん　牛乳　納豆

じゃこサラダ　筑前煮

【Lunch Report by ALT】

Oh no!  Natto day and the sticky item menu.  This is a big challenge for me, but it is kyushoku and kyushoku is always good!  The salad was very crunchy and had a really bright citrus flavor.  I like the abruaage slices since they are almost like croutons.  It was delicious and almost sweet after eating the natto.  Although the karashi made my natto quite good today.  Maybe I am starting to like it? Today’s soup, the chikuzennni was quite good and I love the taste of the broth and my favorite ingredients are the daikon and the takenoko.  A lovely Japanese lunch filled with many interesting and unique ingredients!

【ごはん献立の日】

ごはん　牛乳　さばのみそ煮

切り干し大根の煮つけ　とん汁

【Lunch Report by ALT】

A very Japanese lunch today.  The kiriboshi daikon was delicious and had a nice salty flavor with an earthy sweetness.   It went perfectly with the rice!  The tonjiru was quite tasty today and filled with big chunks of tofu and lots of delicious crunchy cabbage.  The broth had a nice deep flavor which had some smoky flavor like katsuoboshi or something.  It tasted very good today!  A wonderful match with rice.  Today’s saba with miso sauce was excellent and very meaty.  The sweet and slightly savory miso sauce and the light fishy flavor were a great combination and of course were great with rice!  Of course, today is a special ‘Rice Menu’ day! Complete success and a yummy meal.

ポークカレーライス　牛乳　ハムと大根のサラダ

【Lunch Report by ALT】

Today is curry day!  The ham and daikon salad was excellent and the ham chunks were very big and there was even asparagus in the salad which was nice.  One of the best kyushoku salads thanks to being simple and super flavorful with nice ingredients.  The pork curry was very delicious and had a nice amount of spice too.  Lots of veggies, but I got mostly potatoes today. I like carrots in curry the most.  A simple meal of curry and salad with rice on the side, but one of the most hearty and satisfying meals you can get at school!  Delicious!

ごはん　牛乳　えびシューマイ

ナムル　マーボー豆腐

【Lunch Report byALT】

Today’s lunch is Mabodofu with a dumpling and salad, a classic kyushoku menu.  Today’s salad, namul, was a bit saltier than I was expecting since normally it has a more sweet sesame flavor.  The saltiness was nice and went well with the rice and it had a nice juicy crunch as well.  Today’s shrimp dumplings, the ebishumai, were good and had a lot of shrimp flavor.  The mabo was pretty good today, nice and hot.  I like that it is so meaty and the tofu is quite nice as well.  I am always surprised that there is no spoon on mabo dofu day.  My image of eating mabo dofu is that it is always eaten with a spoon.

ホットドッグ（ミルクパン・ソーセージ・キャベツ・ケチャップ）

牛乳　えび団子スープ　りんごゼリー

【Lunch Report by ALT】

Today’s menu is a hot dog, soup, and jelly!  The hot dog is the classic kyushoku style with a very big bun, cabbage, and some ketchup.  It is tasty and smoky from the sausage and the cabbage and ketchup add some moisture giving balance to the bread. The soup today is quite yummy and I love the juicy clear noodles.  The shrimp balls are also juicy and packed with flavor adding some heartiness to the dish.  Of all the jelly types we get in school lunch, today’s apple jelly is one of my favorites because of the many apple chunks.  It reminds me of eating an apple pie, although this jelly is usually cold and frozen, which is still very delicious.  A wonderful meal.

【入学・進級お祝い献立】

赤飯（ごま塩）　牛乳　とりのからあげレモンソース

五目きんぴら　すまし汁　お祝いデザート（さくらのジュレ）

【Lunch Report by ALT】

Today is a special menu celebrating school entrance and all the students going up a grade.  How exciting!  And it is a super yummy menu with lemon karaage and delicious sides including sekihan!  The gomoku kinpira was super juicy and delicious with lots of interesting flavors.  I like the gobo’s earthy flavors and the sweetness of the sauce it was cooked in as well as the juicy abura age too.  Today’s soup was filled with lots of tofu and seaweed.  It tasted great and was pretty filled although it was soup!  Today’s sekihan was so delicious.  I love ‘red rice’ very much and the gomashio is my favorite as well.  It’s such a treat.  I know many students (and adults!) who don’t like it, but I think it is super delicious.  The karagae with lemon sauce was stupendous.  The flavors of the sauce were lemon, but also a little bit more like it was mixed with soy sauce or something to really make it special.  Today when we were preparing lunch, Kyoto sensei carefully poured the remaining sauce on top of the chicken which was very nice and allowed us to enjoy the flavor much more I think.  The sweet and sour flavors of the chicken going back and forth with the more salty and smoky flavors from the roasted sesame seeds in the sekihan were a great combo.  The jelly dessert had a very interesting and unique flavor as well. ‘Sakura Jure’, which was a light flavor that tasted like cherries and was fragrant like peach as well.  I truly wonderful meal worthy of the celebration of the new school year for everyone.  And the best menu to date of course!  Gochisousama deshita!

はちみつパン　牛乳　フレンズサラダ

花野菜サラダ　白菜スープ

Today’s lunch has a slightly western vibe to it with the gratin tart, and bread. I started with the flower vegetable salad which was loaded with broccoli and cauliflower. The dressing is light and nice adding a little tart flavor to the mix, which the veggies soak up like a sponge, and the little squares of ham add a nice flavor that balances it well. It is a really good salad. The soup was excellent and the noodles and hakusai add nice texture and the meatballs were a pleasant surprise. They were tasty and make the soup quite hearty. The gratin in the tart shell was good too. I love anything that comes in these little tart shells, sweet or savory, and today was great. The gratin was creamy and had a very light flavor, but the crunchiness from the shell made it quite nice. Today’s bread is hachimitsupan and it was super fluffy and soft. I think it pairs best with the milk to bring out its sweetness, but I dipped a few hunks into my soup as well of course and it was still delicious. Nice to see the interesting and more adventurous menu items coming out! I love when kyushoku adds surprises.

【１年生初めての給食】

ごはん　牛乳　おろしハンバーグ

もみづけ　みそ汁

Today is the first lunch that the new first graders will ever eat in elementary school! How exciting. I have eaten kyushoku in hoikuen and yochien before and compared to elementary school they are very different. Elementary school lunch matches much better to the pallet of older kids and adults in many ways so it should be exciting. Also, today’s menu is hamburg, with momizuke, and miso soup. A classic menu! The momizuke salad was quite god and had a great crunchy texture and the light flavor from the sesame seeds was nice. The miso soup had a nice light flavor as well and the tofu and aburaage were great. I love how juicy the aburaage becomes filled with soup broth. Today’s main dish, the hamburg steak, was awesome. The oroshi sauce had a really nice onion flavor that paired perfectly with the meat and went well with rice. I always put my hamburg on top of my rice and enjoy it like donburi. A classic menu, but a superb meal! I hope the new students enjoyed their first kyushoku as elementary schoolers!

【入学式】

ごはん　牛乳　かつおのゆずみぞれ煮

五目ひじき　むらくも汁

Today is a Japanese style lunch with fish, hijiki, and soup.  The hijiki was nice and I like the beans in it.  Today’s soup is called ‘murakumo’ soup.  So in English it would be called cloudy soup!  It is hot and delicious and the eggs are great.  Today’s main dish is the Katsuo with a yuzu miso sauce.  It is absolutely delicious and the flavor is so strong.  The miso base is good, but the yuzu has such a powerful and fresh flavor it is amazing.  And the fish itself was very meaty and hearty.  An excellent lunch today and one of the best so far!

フィッシュバーガー　牛乳　コーンシチュー

Today is an interesting menu. Corn stew and 'fish burgers'. The fishburger is a hot dog bun, some cabbage, and tar tar sauce which is topped with a nicely fried very crispy fish katsu. It was very delicious and the tar tar sauce matches well with the fish. The cabbage also adds a nice texture and moistness to the sandwich. The fish and the buns aren’t the same size, so I saved a little of the bread to enjoy with my stew. The corn stew was superb. Great flavor and creamy and hot. Pops of sweetness from the corn and nice textures from the rest of the vegetables as well. A truly delicious meal! The first week of school lunch starts out strong!

【始業式】

三色丼　牛乳　けんちん汁

The first kyushoku of the new school year! Sanshokudon! To represent the variety of challenges and experiences we will all share this year maybe? The kenchin soup was delicious and hot. A nice way to warm up before I dug into my three colored rice. The greens in the sanshokudon were delicious, sweet, and had a nice sesame flavor. The soboru and egg mix was also quite yummy and had a nice salty flavor which balanced very well with the greens. A great lunch to start off the new school year! Best school lunch of the year so far!

【６年生を送る会】

紅茶パン　牛乳　キャベツのマリネ

ビーフシチュー　アイス

～Lunch Report By ALT～

Final kyushoku of the month!  Recently the final kyushoku of the month is always exciting and has something special.  Today there is ice cream and interestingly, kouchapan, or black tea bread.  The cabbage marine is a simple salad of cabbage, cucumber, and ham, but has a very delicious dressing and is quite complex with flavors and textures.  A real surprise of a salad that I always enjoy eating.  Today’s beef stew was delicious and loaded with beef.  It reminds me of the hayashi rice, but I think there is a bit more beefy flavor in this stew.  It is very good.  The bread is also very delicious and has a light coating of sugar on it as well which makes it almost a dessert.  I saved some to eat with the ice cream.  And today we got haagen-dazs vanilla ice cream which is quite the treat!  Today is a special lunch for the 6th year students since this is their last year eating lunch in elementary school.  I wish them well. Today’s lunch was amazing!

三色丼（そぼろ・ごま和え）　牛乳　鮭団子汁

～Lunch Report By ALT～

Today we have sanshokudon and fishball soup.  A great menu!  The soup was amazing and the fishy salmon balls add a lot of great flavor to the soup and mix perfectly with it.  This is one of my favorite soups in kyushoku.  The sanshokudon is like a Japanese bibinba.  It is very good and the greens have a delicious sesame flavor and the egg chicken mix is sweet and savory at the same time.  It is so delicious.  This is one of my favorite meals and a top 15 for sure.  Gochisousamadeshita!

黒とうパン　牛乳　焼きそば　

こんにゃくサラダ　ヨーグルト

～Lunch Report By ALT～

Today is yakisoba day.  The konyaku salad is slimy and juicy and has a nice flavor.  Sadly I have very severe hay fever so I can’t really enjoy the flavor of the foods as much as I want to!  The yakisoba has a strong flavor so I can taste it and it was delicious.  Also, there is a lot of meat in it today which was quite nice.  Lastly I ate some of my bread with the salad and milk, but I saved it to eat alongside the yogurt.  I think that the flavor of the yogurt and bread are a really nice match so they go well together.  A nice lunch today.

ごはん　牛乳　白身魚フライ

五目ひじき　とん汁

～Lunch Report By ALT～

Today’s lunch is Japanese style.  Fried fish and hijiki salad.  The salad was good and I always enjoy the meaty bits with the hijiki.  It is quite sweet as well.  The tonjiru was nice and hot today and filled with lots of vegetables.  It was just regular tonjiru and it was nice to eat it after getting many special varieties recently.  Today’s fried whitefish was excellent.  The perfect amount of crunch and still juicy and warm on the inside as well.  The sauce adds a little extra flavor giving it some zing and its delicious on rice.  A lovely Japanese lunch today!

【地産地消献立：にら】

ホットドッグ　牛乳　チャンポンメン

とちおとめゼリー

～Lunch Report By ALT～

Today is a nice little hotdog with a side of noodles and jelly for dessert.  The chanponmen was very delicious and hot.  I liked the variety of veggies and proteins in it as well.  The hot dog is great as well and I always enjoy it.  It has a nice smokey flavor which is a flavor we don’t see often in kyushoku.  And the cabbage also helps to make up for the buns to dog ratio as well which is nice.  The strawberry jelly was amazing and filed with flavor.  I usually eat it in slices, but today I mixed it up and it was very good too.  A wonderful sweet ending to a delicious meal.

ハヤシライス　牛乳　じゃこサラダ

～Lunch Report By ALT～

Today is a very simple menu, but it is filled with great flavors!  The Jyako salad is crunchy and has a yummy dressing.  I can’t really taste the jyako very much since they are so small.  I really like the aburaage in this salad.  The other main item in today’s lunch is hayashi rice.  An excellent tomato based meaty stew with lots of vegetables.  It is excellent.  One of the most reliable items on the kyuyshoku menu.  Delicious as ever!

米粉パン　牛乳　ササミチーズフライ

ブロッコリーサラダ　ワンタンスープ

～Lunch Report By ALT～

An interesting menu today.  A super creamy and delicious broccoli salad with sweet corn and crunchy cucumbers was first on my list.  It was great.  The wonton soup was quite good as well with a nice flavor.  Savory and filled with umami, it was warm and hot too.  I particularly liked the crunchy and juicy takenoko.  Usually I like to make a sandwich using the bread when we have a big meaty main dish, but komekopan isn’t really good for making sandwiches so I mostly dipped it into the soup.  I love komekopan very much.  It’s chewy and had a really interesting texture to someone like me who has eaten white bread for most of their life!  The baked (or fried?) chicken with cheese was tremendous.  Such delicious flavor from the meat and the cheese protected by the bread topping.  We rarely get a chicken dish like this and it is super good.  Takes this menu into the top 10 or maybe even top 5 kyushoku menu range for this semester.  Gochisousamadeshita!  What a treat.

ごはん　牛乳　青ヒラスのみりんじょうゆ焼き

五目きんぴら　すいとん汁

～Lunch Report By ALT～

Today’s menu is very Japanese.  This menu is one that everything in it goes well with rice.  The kinpira was delicious and sweet. I liked the gobo in particular, because it has such a nice flavor and texture.  I learned that ‘suiton’ means flour dumpling.  I was wondering what those noodles were!  They are quite nice and add to the texture of the soup.  Today’s potatoes were especially well cooked.  Finally the Hirasu.  I researched a little bit and found out that it is actually called the Hiramasu and today we ate Shirohiramasu, although the kanji says blue!  It is a confusing fish name!  Today was a fine lunch.

ビビンバ（焼き肉・ナムル）　牛乳

白菜スープ　ぽんかん

～Lunch Report By ALT～

Korean menu day!  Bibinba with a tangerine!  The vegetable mix was delicious and had nice nutty flavor.  The Korean style beef was amazing and filled with flavor.  I took a small taste of each and then mixed them into one big bowl and enjoyed it like it is eaten traditionally.  Today’s hakusai soup was great as well and I especially love the clear noodles.  And a nice cold tangerine after the meal is perfect for cleansing the pallet.  Delicious Monday lunch!

【バレンタイン献立】

はちみつパン　牛乳　ハートのハンバーグ（ケチャップ）

ハムと大根のサラダ　クリームシチュー　チョコプリン

～Lunch Report By ALT～

Yesterday was a holiday and Sunday is Valentines day so today’s lunch is a Valentine’s day themed meal.  The daikon and ham salad was crunchy and nice.  The dressing is a little sour, but tastes amazing.  Today’s cream stew was amazing.  It is always good, but today it tastes like there is some extra love in the stew.  I think it is the umami from the meat.  I also made a mini hamburg sandwich with ketchup using the honey bread.  Today’s hamburg is shaped like a heart!  It is very cute. My hamburg sandwich was great and the ketchup was just the right amount.  Today’s very special treat is the chocolate pudding dessert.  It was quite chocolatey and even a little frozen which I like.  It was a true treat and a rare appearance of chocolate on the school lunch menu.  Today’s menu is easily a top 15!  Gochisousama Deshita!

えび天丼　牛乳　もみづけ

キムチ入りとん汁

～Lunch Report By ALT～

Today is parents day! There are many family members in the school today watching lessons.  Today’s lunch is also very special!  Instead of squid tempura, we got shrimp tempura!  What a big upgrade!  The momitzuke was excellent, fresh, crunchy, and had a great sesame flavor.  Whatever they pickled it with was very fresh and reminded me of ginger! The pork soup with kimchi was excellent.  This soup comes out for lunch sometimes and it’s always delicious.  Today, along with the ebiten and salad it is a perfect match.  The shrimp tempura today was amazing.  It was super crunchy and perfectly fried and not oily at all.  Also, the shrimp inside was very juicy and delicious as well.  What an amazing treat that with the tendon sauce makes it a true gift.  Top 15 menu today!  I love the ebiten and kimchi soup.  Gochisousamadeshita!

ごはん　牛乳　包焼（パオシュー）

大根とツナのサラダ　マーボー豆腐

～Lunch Report By ALT～

Mabo Dofu day!  Tuna salad was excellent and packed with crunchy vegetables and loads of meaty tunafish.  I ate it quickly and then put my dumplings into my mabodofu to warm them up.  The mabo had a nice mild flavor and was packed with tons of meat too.  Always a delicious lunch menu.  The dumplings today were interesting and I don’t know how to describe their flavor!  They were meaty and salty, but unique somehow that is difficult for me to taste.  They were very good though.  A delicious lunch today.

ごはん　牛乳　銀だらの西京焼き

切干大根の煮物　どさんこ汁

～Lunch Report By ALT～

Today is a Japanese style lunch.  The kiriboshi daikon nimono was pretty good and great with rice.  Today’s fish was gindara and it is called Japanese bluefish in English.  It was a little oily, and reminded me of the sea.  The dosanko soup, or Hokkaido soup, was excellent.  My favorite part of the meal today.  Filled with plenty of veggies that Hokkaido is famous for producing and even a little bit of butter in the soup as well I think.  Tomorrow is Mabo dofu day!