Itadakimasu...

Japanese and Chinese cuisine, believe it or not, is something that will forever be tied to my favorite food memories at Disney.  It was actually places like Teppan Edo, and the Mitsukoshi department store that fueled my fascination of Japanese culture and cooking, and it was places like Nine Dragons that showed me that Chinese food doesn't have to come in a white box. 

I know I've said it before, but my favorite pavilion along EPCOT's World Showcase is, in fact, the Japan Pavilion.  It was there, I discovered things like Pocky, Panda Cookies, Ramune, yuzu sake, bento-style cooking (more on that at the end of the month), and even took the plunge on sushi for the first time.  I've gotten everything from cookbooks to hair combs to chopsticks, sake, and lucky owls in my beloved Japan Pavilion.  Believe it or not, it was the Japan Pavilion that introduced me to Pokemon.  After all, it must be the work of magic to get a 30-something woman to invest more hours then she'd care to admit to into a children's video game franchise. 

So this week, I've decided to recreate some of Disney's most popular Japanese and Chinese dishes.  I honestly think Disney's Asian-style cusine is highly underrated, and I'm super excited to not only pay tribute to some of my absolute favorite places in all of Disney World, but to also share foods that I think most people largely overlook while at Disney.  In fact, it was a struggle to narrow down what recipes I was going to feature this week...  There is so much to choose from!