Just Bento

http://www.justhungry.com/full-japanese-breakfast-scaled-down
This is Maki's post of a traditional Japanese breakfast.

While in Japan I ate a variety of breakfasts. Mostly, breakfast is not too different from lunch or dinner. When I stayed at the Plaza in Osaka, I thought they were putting out last night's leftovers for the breakfast buffet! And I was suprised by the sandwiches we ate in various youth hostels around the place. In our hotel in Tokyo, breakfast was a small omelete, a couple of breakfast sausages and coffee.

When we stayed in more traditional places, our breakfast was much like Maki's post: fish, rice, egg, maybe some salad or pickles. Yummy! In our own house, we mostly ate what we knew, which meant thick slices of white bread with imported Marmite, or Weetabix from the foreign food shop. I wish I had eaten more traditional food at home, but I didn't know how to cook then. If only I had discovered Maki sooner!

Traditional Japanese breakfast would be rice, miso soup, some sort of grilled fish (usually himono (half-dried fish) marinated or shiozuke (e.g. salted salmon), often a raw egg, some nori (dipped into soy sauce then wrapped around some rice), natto (fermented soy beans), and pickles. BUT, i would avoid serving the raw egg, natto and any whole fish to a Japanese food novice. The whole fish because it takes a bit of skill to eat one without running into bone problems, raw egg because it's hard to get safe raw eggs in the US, and natto because...well, it's an acquired taste. So... how about

- rice
- miso soup you make yourself, or a good instant variety
- tamagoyaki - basic recipe
- instant pickled you make yourself or bought pickles (you just need a small amount per person, like 2-3 tablespoons worth)
- If you think your mom can go with fish for breakfastA boneless piece of marinated or salted salmon. If you're in NJ you can get these from Mitsuwa. See if they have fish marinated in sake lees (sake kazu zuke) - you wipe off the lees and just grill it or pan fry it. It may sound odd but it is sweet and really delicious. Else, see if you can find salted salmon (go for 'mild salt' if they have different kinds) or miso marinated fish of some sort.

Thanks guys I appreciate the quick response! I'll be sure to go food shopping soon with that in mind.